


Something Human

by littleredsparrow



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Eventual Fluff, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 37,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28030743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleredsparrow/pseuds/littleredsparrow
Summary: Bucky needed a purpose...could that purpose be helping train the newest member of the team? Or will whatever 'curse' seems to be following her tear them apart?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 58
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

When Steve Rogers himself turned up at her door she thought she was imagining things. Sure, she had recently developed a few strange abilities, but she hadn’t expected anyone to notice. He had been so kind, so understanding, and so convincing. She was completely ashamed she had fallen for his easy charms and had agreed to train with him in the first place.

She was smarter than that and had been on her own now for the better half of her life. She had been so convinced she didn’t need anyone, especially now that she could turn completely invisible. 

Somehow Steve had talked up this initiative he was a part of. She knew all about it after seeing them all on the news. She wasn’t destined to become an Avenger, it just wasn’t her style. She much preferred to lay low.

Nevertheless she found herself striding alongside the taller man heading for a large grey, unassuming building that Steve called ‘the compound’. He wanted her to meet the rest of the team and then she could decide for herself if she wanted their help in reigning in her powers and to assist them on missions as well.

He was basically offering her a job, and well...she could use a job and a consistent roof over her head and he seemed so genuine that he had somehow gained her trust.

She was wondering if that was an error on her part, now that she was being ushered inside before the wandering eyes of people she had only ever seen on tv.

“All right team. Boardroom, five minutes,” Steve said with a smile, not answering the questions the raised eyebrows around the room were asking.

They all shuffled down the hall, sliding into seats around the large boardroom table. Steve shot her a smile she knew was supposed to comfort her, but she responded by narrowing her eyes at him. She didn’t want to be his ‘show and tell’ project, but it seemed like she didn’t have much of a choice.

“Shall I introduce you or-?” Steve’s question caught in his throat when he registered the murderous expression on her face. “Right. I will. Okay everyone, this is Alexis-”

“Lex,” she added firmly.

Steve sighed. “Lex. Fury sent me to find her after there were reports of a ghost hanging around Broadway the last little while. So I went to find her and she agreed to come meet everyone…”

“I’m sorry...did you just say she was a ghost?” Tony Stark’s eyebrows were almost at his hairline. His arms were folded across his chest and he looked unamused.

Lex sighed. “I’m not a ghost, though it’s easy to see their confusion when I can do this,” she focused and felt herself shift. By the expression on the group's face it worked.

“How can you...?” The redhead she knew to be Natasha Romanov didn’t finish her question at the subtle shake of Steve’s head.

It was subtle, but Lex saw it. She hadn’t indulged her entire past to Steve, just opening up enough to let him know it had been traumatic and that’s where her ability had come from. He was polite enough not to push it and she was secretly grateful to stop other people from prying as well.

“That’s remarkable,” another female from the table was looking at her in awe.

Lex had to look at her hands to tell if she had shifted back or not. It was difficult for her to control them at all. She gave the poor barista quite a fright last week when she had picked up her order not realizing she had phased.

There was a sudden flurry of questions. No, she hadn’t had these abilities for long. No, she wasn’t quite able to choose when it happened at this point and when she managed to go invisible on purpose it sometimes took her awhile to come back. She had been a computer hacker before this and freelanced here and there to make ends meet.

“I see why Fury thought you’d be useful,” Natasha told her with a small smirk. Lexi made a mental note that she thought that she would get along well with her. 

“All right, she’s going to hang out for a bit...get to know us. So everyone...behave,” Steve shot a look at a few choice members of the team before dismissing them.

Most of them headed for a sort of common area, so Lex followed suit. She was still trying to ignore the way everyone was staring at her, wondering if each one of them was stared at like this when they first arrived.

One of the guys slid up next to her. “Hey there. I just thought I would introduce myself. My name is Sam, but around here they call me Falcon,” he eagerly held out his hand.

Steve had rolled his eyes and went to say something, but Lex cut him off by taking Sam’s outreached hand and replying. “Ah yes. Fly boy, I saw you on the news”.

A large grin broke across Sam’s face and he looked over at Steve. “I like her. She’s going to fit in really well here,” he told him.

“A little too well is my fear,” Steve chuckled.

Lex furrowed an eyebrow and looked up at the tall blond next to her. “Hey. I haven’t even decided if I’m sticking around. Don’t get too attached to me,” she was teasing, but there was a bit of truth behind it. Lex didn’t like getting attached to people because it hurt too much when they disappointed you, or she was on the move again. Truthfully she never felt safe in one spot for too long, it was a wonder Steve was even able to track her down.

“Well I hope you do,” Natasha said with a smile as she approached. “I could use the help keeping all these boys in check”.

Lex laughed as Sam feigned he was hurt. “Nat has a point,” Steve laughed along with them. 

“Plus if your hacking abilities are as good as they say...I could use your help on some new tech I’ve been developing,” Tony pointed out as he leaned on the counter beside her and shot her an easy smile. 

She had to admit that working with the Tony Stark would be a thrill. She had been following his career and inventions very carefully over the last few years.

This was all sounding very good if she was being honest with herself. Almost too good. She had come accustomed to these kinds of things being pulled out from underneath her, or something sinister hiding behind them. 

Her hacking and tech skills had drawn attention to her before. Many companies had tried to recruit her, but she didn’t feel comfortable or it landed her in hot water. It is how she ended up with these strange new abilities after all.

Lex felt overwhelmed by the constant attention she was receiving here. She knew it would die down eventually, but she was starting to feel a little panicked. There was so much pressure on her as these incredibly gifted human beings tried to convince her to join their ranks. She didn’t feel worthy of even being there, and yet they were practically begging her to stay.

“Hey. Can I take you on a tour,” Natasha grabbed her shoulder and shot her a knowing look. Lex knew she liked her as she nodded eagerly and Natasha steered her out into the hallway. “They all mean well, but I know they can be a lot,” she chuckled softly.

Lex nodded with a small laugh. “I felt like the shiny new play thing”. 

“They’re just excited. We haven’t had anyone new around here in quite some time. Plus, your abilities are incredible. Does it feel weird when you turn invisible?”

“It tingles a little, but not enough for me to notice unless I’m thinking about it. I’ve shifted without realizing it before. I’m trying to learn how to control it”.

Natasha nodded. “And how long do you stay invisible?”

“I haven’t really tested it. It seems to just come and go at this point...which is kind of frustrating…”

“The powers are new to you though right? It will come with time. It took Wanda quite a while to fully develop hers as well…”

“Yeah it’s only been a couple months...well...a couple months on my own with them,” Lex was grateful Natasha didn’t ask her what she meant by that. “I’m still getting used to them”.

Natasha happily showed her around. The wing where everyone had their own rooms, the gym complete with lap pool and jogging track, the library with its large arched windows, this place even had its own screening room.

“Is there anything this place doesn’t have?” Lex asked in awe.

Natasha laughed. “Tony went all out when he built this place. He truthfully just wanted us all to feel comfortable and at home here. As cheesy as it sounds...we are a family. I had never had a family before, so I was glad to have this one.”

Lex could tell by the way she was looking at her that Natasha saw a bit of herself in her. Lex hadn’t had a family either and understood what she was trying to tell her. Maybe she would find her own family here as well. Though, is that what she wanted?

Her head was spinning all the way back towards the common room as Natasha finished the tour. Lex’s usual routine was to run when things overwhelmed her, but maybe this would be worth a try? If it didn’t turn out the way she hoped, the door was right there. She wasn’t going to be held against her will...this time.

When she walked back into the room a new man was standing there. He was dressed all in black, with an eyepatch over one eye. His arms were folded across his chest as he looked at her. “You must be Lex,” he said with a small smile.

Lex made eye contact with Steve who widened his eyes at her as if she should know who this man was. “Yes. That’s me!”

“I’m Director Nick Fury and I’d like to have a little chat with you…”


	2. Chapter 2

Her conversation with Fury went as well as she could have hoped. He was very intrigued by her abilities, though much to her annoyance she wasn’t able to show him on command this time. They had talked briefly about her hacking abilities and she had felt her walls fly up when he brought up where she had come from.

She had been surprised he had already known so much. Though with him being the director of a large special intelligence agency she shouldn’t have been surprised. He had understood her desire not to talk about it and promised he wouldn’t bring it up again unless absolutely necessary. He just wanted to know about the group of people that had done this to her.

In the end she found herself agreeing that she would ‘join the team’ and train to assist on missions while learning to control her new powers. She did feel a little as if Fury wanted to keep her close to monitor her, but shook off the feeling.

“I’m so glad to have you aboard,” Steve clapped her arm enthusiastically.

Many of the others had approached her when they heard to offer her hugs and handshakes. Human contact wasn’t necessarily her favourite thing, but she welcomed their willing friendship. 

In the back of her mind she reminded herself not to get too close to any of them and set off with Steve so she could pack up her belongings. Steve had told her he would bring her ‘home’ to collect her things, but the tiny apartment didn’t exactly feel like home.

She was almost embarrassed as she grabbed a small duffle bag and began shoveling what little belongings she had into it. Steve was surveying the room slowly, though he had been there before, as if he couldn’t quite believe this is how she was living before.

It was small, musty, and cramped and she kept the curtains closed day and night. There was a small mattress in the corner, a well worn couch, an old tv, and a tiny kitchenette area. Other than that she had access to a miniscule bathroom and that’s where she had been living the last few months.

“I won’t be sad to say goodbye to this,” she told him with a quick smile, trying to make light of her situation.

Steve didn’t respond, but offered her a tight lipped smile in response. He followed her out into the hallway and as she was locking the door he muttered, “Let's get you home”.

The sincerity of his words sent a shiver down her spine and she had to take a deep breath before turning to face him again in order to compose herself. She wasn’t used to people being this kind to her, especially right away.

When they returned to the compound, Lex found herself standing in what would be considered ‘her room’. It was small, but way nicer than anything she had considered ‘hers’ before. She had a large window, a queen sized bed, a large closet, a tv, and a bookshelf. It was so clean and so comfortable, she found herself getting a little misty eyed, but hastily pushed it back.

She hung up her clothes in the closet, trying not to notice how they didn’t even fill half of the space. It looked kind of pathetic when she saw it like this, but it couldn’t be helped. She sat on the edge of the bed, noting how firm and fresh the mattress was in comparison to the worn out one she had been sleeping on.

A knock at the door drew her attention and she smiled when she saw Sam leaning against the door frame. “Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to officially welcome you aboard,” he told her with an easy smile.

Lex found herself smiling back. “Thanks fly guy. It’s a nice place you’ve got here,” she glanced around her room again.

Sam just nodded. “It took a bit of convincing for me to move in as well, but I don’t regret it. It’s nice all being under one roof...you’ll see…”

“I believe you,” Lex laughed. “This place is huge. I think it’s going to take me a few days to learn how to get around…”

With a laugh Sam agreed. “Yeah that’s fair. If you’re finished unpacking I’ll walk with you back to the main area if you’d like? You must be getting hungry and I’m fairly certain Tony ordered pizza”.

Lex found herself grinning. “That would be great...thank you. I’m not going to lie, pizza sounds great right now!”

Sam walked alongside her, talking away about how long he had been there, and telling her all about his flight suit. He seemed very eager to talk about a new addition he called ‘red wing’.

They stepped into the large kitchen and dining area to find a variety of pizzas open on the counter top. “Help yourself,” Tony told her as he passed her with his own plate.

“T-thank you!” Lex called after him, not used to thanking people this much in one day.

Sam gestured for her to go first, so she grabbed a plate and helped herself to a couple of slices. Once Sam had done the same she followed him over to the long table where most of the team already sat. 

She took a seat next to Steve as Sam sat on her other side. Across from her sat Natasha, Bruce Banner, and a man she hadn’t had the chance to meet. Tony sat at the head of the table and Wanda and Vision filed into the room, Wanda grabbing pizza before joining them.

“All right. Now that we are all present I would like to raise a toast to our newest recruit,” Tony said with a smile, holding up his glass of coke.

Lex narrowed her eyes at him at being called a ‘recruit’, but smiled as she was honored he was excited enough about her presence to toast her. “Thanks for the warm welcome,” she muttered as she took a sip of her water and tried to ignore everyone's eyes on her.

Mercifully the conversation moved on to other things and she was able to just eat quietly and listen. The real chatters in the group kept the conversation going, while Lex studied the more silent types. Wanda, Nat, Bruce, and the guy across from her kept quiet. Bruce only speaking up once to argue with Tony about some scientific fact she didn’t understand.

Her eyes focused on the man across from her. He looked kind of rough, his head lowered, his long hair hanging in his face. He kept his blue eyes focused on the table in front of him.

Steve saw her looking. “Oh...have you not met officially?” the man glanced up for only a second, he looked like he couldn’t care less to be introduced. “Lex this is Bucky Barnes...my best friend…”

“The Winter Soldier,” she suddenly recognized the name.

Now he was truly looking at her, his eyes narrowed. “Uhh..yeah...we don’t call him that because-” 

“I’m not the Winter Soldier anymore,” Bucky’s voice was gruff and quiet.

Steve shot her an apologetic look as if Bucky had been rude to her. Truthfully she hadn’t found it rude at all. “Right,” she nodded with an eyebrow raise thinking about all the news reports she had seen of him. He was a murderer according to them...though she supposed she would be considered one as well...if they knew.

“Ok,” Steve coughed as if he was trying to clear the air. “So when do you want to start your training? Are you settled in enough or do you want a few days?”

Lex swallowed the mouthful of pizza before answering. “I’m good to start whenever…”

“I take it you plan on training her then Steve? Even though I can probably help her more than you can because you know...I know science,” Tony shot Steve a sarcastic glance.

“Actually-”

“I could train her,” Natasha cut him off. “She’s going to need to learn hand to hand combat and who would be better?”

“Well Wanda has some similar abilities and she’s done well learning to control them,” Bruce pointed out.

“Guys-” Steve tried again.

“I’d be happy to train her. Show her the ropes around here,” Sam winked at her. “We’ve already bonded and have nicknames,” he puffed out his chest triumphantly. 

Lex snorted. “I have a nickname for you. I don’t remember approving any nicknames you’ve given me…”

“Invisible girl? Vanish? Uhh...Vis?”

“Vision is already Vis,” Wanda pointed out.

“Those were terrible,” Lex laughed as Sam laughed with her.

“Guys. Guys!” Steve spoke a little louder to get their attention. “I was going to say I think Bucky should be the one to train her…”

“Bucky!?” the room questioned almost in unison. Bucky included.

“Steve I…” Bucky’s eyes were wide, but he couldn’t even finish his sentence. 

“It will be great Buck...for both of you,” Steve shot him a look that Lex couldn’t decipher. “She needs help and you need something to focus on…”

Bucky rose silently from the table with his half eaten plate of food. He just stared at Steve and spoke directly to Lex without looking at her. “We start tomorrow. 8am in the training room…”


	3. Chapter 3

Lex had been annoyed by Bucky’s reaction. Everyone else seemed thrilled to train her, but Bucky seemed irritated by the opportunity. Steve had promised her he would come around, but she wasn’t so sure. They had told her he had been through a lot of trauma, but so had she, so she didn’t really see it as a valid excuse.

She changed into a black tank top and black leggings and made her way down to the training arena. It was just a small room off to the side of the gym with padded flooring and a punching bag.

Bucky was already waiting for her as she walked in, he glanced at the clock above her head. “You’re a minute late…”

Lex rolled her eyes as she gathered her long hair into a ponytail. “What’s your issue?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “No issue. I just need to know that you’re taking this seriously…”

“I’m here aren’t I?” she muttered.

A small smirk tugged at his lips. “You were going to run out on me? That thrilled to have me train you?”

Lex snorted and narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh yes...I’m eager to train with someone who was jumping for joy when I got assigned to them…”

For a moment Bucky’s expression softened before it hardened once more. “I just didn’t think I was ready for the responsibility…” he muttered.

“I’m not that helpless,” Lex rolled her eyes.

“That’s not-”

“What you meant...I know. Are we going to start or what? I thought you were a stickler for time…” Lex smirked at him.

Bucky rolled his eyes. “So what do you know so far? I think we should start with the basics...defense maybe?”

He instructed her in how to defend his attack and she laughed. He quirked an eyebrow, but she didn’t give him a reason for her outburst. He swung a slow punch towards her and she responded by grabbing his wrist and twisting his arm back the other direction.

Bucky let out a small yelp of surprise which made her laugh harder. “I told you that I’m not that helpless…”

Bucky broke out of her grasp. “Well you’re lucky I went at you with that arm instead of this one,” he flexed his mechanical arm as a demonstration.

“Lets see what you got Barnes,” she nodded him on and he swung at her again.

She had to admit this was kind of fun. Now that he was moving faster he seemed impressed that she was able to keep up. She had to learn to fight pretty quickly to defend herself, so she wasn’t a complete novice.

They were both breathing heavily before long. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

Lex averted her gaze. “It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly.

Bucky considered her for a moment. “Well all right...lets go again…”

Lex was lying flat on her back, her eyes clenched shut in pain. Bucky had pulled a fast one on her and flipped her onto her back. He was standing over her and smiling as if he was actually taking great pleasure in knocking her over...which he was.

“See...not as prepared as you thought…” he chuckled.

He didn’t bother to offer to help her up, which suited her just fine as she wouldn’t have let him. She got back to her feet and swung at him, which he effortlessly deflected. “Ugh. I think I’m done for today,” she moaned.

“I don’t think that’s up to you to decide...we haven’t even worked on focusing your abilities…”

Lex was ignoring him and already peeling off her hand wraps. “Do you even know how you plan on helping me with that?” she chuckled.

“If you want my help you’re going to have to listen to me,” he told her sternly. When she continued to remove her wraps he grabbed her wrist with his metal arm to stop her.

Her eyes immediately darted to it. “So how did you end up with that anyway?” Bucky’s eyes widened as if no one had asked him that before. “What? Has no one ever asked you a direct question before?”

“I got it when I was experimented on by HYDRA,” his voice was gruff, which told her everything she needed to know.

“Aren’t you sick of people handling you with kids gloves? I get it if you don’t want to talk about your past...but people are clearly tiptoeing around you in case they upset you…”

Bucky’s eyes were wild. “That’s great coming from someone who won’t even share a single detail about her past or where she came from. I don’t think you’re in a position to judge me…” and with that he stormed out leaving her alone.

Lex cringed as the door slammed shut behind him. She realized immediately she had pushed too many buttons at once and had basically broken him like the old elevator in her apartment. 

She knew she’d have to apologize, though it wasn’t something she was used to doing. She also knew she would have to give him a little while to cool down so she headed to her room to change.

Afterwards she wandered into the kitchen to find Steve sipping a cup of coffee and flipping through a notepad. He turned his head and a smirk graced her lips as he saw her. “I hear training went...well…” he teased.

Lex sighed heavily and poured herself a glass of water. “Are you sure partnering me with him was a good idea? He doesn’t seem like the type to train someone…”

“You barely know him,” Steve pointed out.

“I know he’s quiet, a little abrasive, and that he doesn’t seem to like me much…”

Steve just laughed. “Don’t take it personally. He usually takes a while to warm up to someone...training you will give him some purpose. He’s just kind of bounced around doing his own thing for the last few months. I don’t think he sees how he fits in on the team so I know he needs this. Just give him another chance”.

Lex exhaled quickly, her long bangs blowing up in the air. “I wasn’t very warm and welcoming myself I guess. I need to apologize to him...I need to work on my attitude as much as he does,” she grumbled.

“You and Buck may be a lot more similar than you’d think…”

“I-” Lex paused at the way Steve’s eyes widened. “What?” she glanced down at her hand that had been clutching her glass and sighed as she saw it floating in midair. “Shit. I’m obviously still here...give me a second…'' She tried to concentrate on shifting, but still remained invisible. “This is so frustrating…”

Steve laughed. “It’s bizarre to hear you speaking, but not be able to see you. This is going to be incredible once you’re able to control it…”

“If I’m able to control it you mean,” Lex said bitterly, trying to make herself come back and failing again.

Wanda had entered the kitchen and smiled when she realized what was happening. “If I could learn to control mine I have complete faith in you Lex,” she told her earnestly. “I thought I was hopeless at the beginning and I can already tell what a strong person you are”.

“Thanks,” Lex said quietly as she set her glass down. “I mean...for now it would be a great time to pull a prank on someone at least”.

“You’re going to give someone a heart attack,” Steve chuckled lightly.

It seemed like Steve was warning her not to do it, but she had already wandered into the hallway looking for a victim. She could use a good laugh to lighten up, she couldn’t remember the last time she had truly laughed.

She was hoping for Sam or Natasha, but quickly found Bruce and Tony in the lab. Bruce was examining something in a book, Lex snuck in to see what they were up to.

“This is fascinating,” Bruce was telling Tony eagerly. “Quantum theory...I wonder if we’d be able to figure out how to open a portal to another realm”.

“Do you hear yourself?” Tony replied sarcastically. “That’s not possible”.

“It says right here-” Bruce jumped as the book snapped shut in front of him.

They both looked wildly around the room and Lex was unable to control herself at the sight of their surprise. She burst into a fit of laughter, and then realized she had phased and they could see her.

“I couldn’t help myself,” she grinned at them.

Tony laughed as well. “So have you started to be able to control when you do that then?”

Lex shook her head. “Not in the slightest. I just decided to take advantage of the times where it happened”.

Bruce held his hand over his chest. “And of all the people to target, you pick the one that could turn into a giant green rage monster?” he teased.


	4. Chapter 4

The next few weeks seemed to fly by. She spent the majority of her days training with Bucky and then helping Tony with random projects in the lab.

She found the time she spent in the lab to be what she looked forward to the most. Tony was blunt, and absolutely brilliant. If she had an idea he thought was stupid, he would tell her. He was also always working on such a wide variety of projects and she felt honored to assist in any way possible. He was trying to upgrade his FRIDAY operating system and integrate all the technology into a pair of glasses.

Lex’s coding and hacking background came in handy as she was helping write some of the code and running tests on it. Tony seemed to also enjoy having company as he told her he didn’t often have people around that could keep up with him. 

Bruce was also another staple in the lab. He was usually working on biological projects, obviously very invested in the study of Gamma Radiation. He was always super friendly and nice to talk to.

Training with Bucky still felt like a chore. Each morning she would wake up and already find him waiting for her, no matter how early she showed up. He kept pushing her to meditate after each training session, and much to her frustration it hadn’t become easier.

He would just keep telling her ‘focus’ and ‘concentrate’ and she had to do everything in her power not to snap at him, because what did he think she was trying to do? As annoying as he was, she recognized that he was only trying to help, so she resisted.

Any free time she had she would spend hanging out with Steve and Natasha or trying to beat Sam in Call of Duty, which he was determined to teach her how to play. Steve had been right about her fitting in well here, a thought that terrified her to her core. What if something happened and she had to leave this place? It already felt more like home than anywhere else had and she didn’t think she could bear it if she had to run again. This is why she didn’t like getting attached, but she knew it was far too late for that, though she didn’t want to admit it.

The door to the training room opened and Lex opened her eyes, her thoughts were already spiralling out of control so it wasn’t like they were actually interrupting. Steve walked in and shot them a smile, “Sorry to intrude, but Fury is here and he wants you to join us”.

Bucky nodded in return and got to his feet. “You can stay and try to finish the session on your own,” he told her.

Lex shot him a look, but he looked like he meant business. “Fine,” she sighed, pretending to shut her eyes again, but really peeking to see the two men file out of the room together.  
If meditating with Bucky watching over her was hard, meditating alone was harder. At this point she wasn’t even listening to the recording and was fidgeting uncomfortably as she tried to sit tall. Mercifully the recording ended and she got to her feet, taking a few moments to stretch from the stiffness that had set in.

She walked quickly back to her room to change. The plan was to grab lunch before heading to the lab to see what Tony needed help with today. When she got to the common room she was surprised to find Steve, Natasha, and Sam dressed like they were going somewhere.

“What’s up?” she asked curiously.

Steve smiled at her. “We’re just going on a quick surveillance mission,” he explained. “We shouldn’t be gone longer than a few days”.

Lex furrowed her brow in concern. She walked into this place saying she wouldn’t get attached, but here she was already worrying about her new friends as they left for what seemed to be a standard mission.

Bucky walked in a moment later, also dressed in his uniform. “You too?” Lex asked.

He nodded. “Don’t think this gets you out of training. You’ll just have to practice alone until I get back,” he smirked.

Lex sighed heavily and turned to look at the group as a whole. “Well...be careful”.

Natasha nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of these idiots,” she laughed and Lex nodded with a laugh of her own.

Lex watched them file out of the room, feeling a small pang of emotion she didn’t recognize. She blinked a few times and then realized it was emptiness she had been feeling. She was genuinely going to miss them.

“Did they leave?” Tony wandered in and grabbed a banana front the fruit stand. Lex just nodded, still looking towards the door. “Don’t worry...they’ll be fine. This is the first mission you’ve been here for,” he pointed out.

“When will I get to go? I’m pretty sure Bucky can vouch that I can defend myself,” Lex asked.

Tony shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll get your shot soon. Don’t worry! I’ll see you in the lab in half an hour?”

“Sure”.

“Great,” Tony beamed at her and wandered away.

Lex sat in the window eating a sandwich and flipping through a book one of the others had left there. She kept wondering what the mission was that they were going on. Steve had called it surveillance...but surveillance for what? She wasn’t sure what the protocol was and if she was even allowed to ask.

“Are you okay?” Wanda asked, startling her. “Sorry. I guess you didn’t hear me come in”.

“No I didn’t,” Lex smiled. “I’m alright. Do you know anything about the mission the others were sent on?”

Wanda sat opposite her and shook her head. “No. They were pretty quiet about it. It only seemed like Steve knew the extent of what it was. The others just went along because they were told they had to…”

Lex’s brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t they all get to know?”

“Oh don’t worry. I trust Steve...he’s become like a brother to me. If he’s keeping it a secret he has a good reason,” Wanda told her quickly.

With a sigh Lex agreed. “I trust Steve as well...I just don’t know if i’d want to go out in the field and not know what I was supposed to be doing…”

Wanda just shrugged. “I’m sure they know enough”.

Lex nodded. “What was the last mission you went on?”

The other girl thought for a moment. “It might have been when we went after Bucky. Steve was determined to track him. He believed he was brainwashed before the rest of us did, but we helped bring him in…”

“Hmm…” Lex had gathered a bit about Bucky’s past, but didn’t know the extent of it. “It was HYDRA who did that to him right? What was he like when you guys brought him in?”

Wanda bit her lip. “He was really quiet and withdrawn. He was like a shadow for a while, barely speaking, eating or even being seen…”

“So not that much different than he is now?”

Lex realized quickly her joke had missed when she saw Wanda’s expression. “He went to Wakanda for a while to remove the code from his brain. So he could live his own life again. He may be quiet and reserved still...but he’s completely changed since then”.

“Right,” Lex said awkwardly. “Well...good for him…I’d better get going. Tony is waiting for me…”

Her walk to the lab was filled with thoughts about her past. The way that everyone talked about Bucky, like he was damaged and needed to be handled carefully, bothered her. She knew if they found out the whole truth about what she had gone through that they would likely handle her the same way, and she wasn’t sure she would be okay with that.

“Right on time! Here...put these on,” Tony handed her yet another prototype of his glasses. “Tell me what you see”.

“What is the goal for these?” she asked hesitantly, before slipping them on.

“They’re supposed to show what you’re thinking about”.

Lex was glad she asked before speaking, because currently she was fighting off the flashbacks of fighting the other captives. She blinked a few times and the scene changed to the group looking at her with big sad eyes after finding out truly how much trauma she had seen. She forced herself through it and tried to come up with something else.

Keeping her voice level she told him with a laugh, “I see us working in the lab”.

Tony was quiet for a moment. “Well that’s touching,” he laughed. “Nothing deep or profound though…”

She could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn’t believe her. “We’re working late into the night though by the looks of it. Maybe I’m just really excited to see this thing through,” she pulled the glasses off and handed them back to him with a forced smile.

Tony was still observing her carefully and she did her best not to squirm. “You know you can trust us. I don’t know what you’re hiding that you don’t want to talk about...but if you ever feel ready...any one of us would be happy to listen or talk it out with you…”

The sincerity on his features caused appreciation to swell in her chest. “I know Tony. Thank you,” she told him quietly. “Let’s get to work!” She immediately tried to change the subject.

He nodded with a small smile. “Take a look at the program. The framework is giving me some trouble”.

Lex gratefully headed to the computer and lost herself working through the code.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been four days since the team had left and Lex was getting edgy. Steve had been pretty clear that it should only be a couple of days, but four seemed like too many. Her brain immediately went to the worst case scenario, that something had happened to them. No one else seemed worried in the slightest.

“You know...Bucky said you would do this,” Tony said with a smirk, casually taking a sip of coffee and staring at her.

Lex was standing in the large kitchen windows staring out at the front of the compound as if she expected them to arrive any second. She whirled around with an eyebrow raised. “What exactly did the Soldier say I would do?”

Tony snorted. “Don’t let him hear you call him that…”

“Tony…”

He grinned at her. “I know very well you’re still supposed to be practicing meditation to control your powers...yet here you are making excuses to not do that…”

She scrunched up her face. “I’m not making excuses. I’m worried about them. Generally when people are gone for longer than they tell you it’s not a good sign…”

Tony shrugged and then laughed.

“What?” she asked exasperated.

He took another sip of his coffee before replying. “It’s just...when you first got here you had this tough girl attitude and I didn’t think I’d find you pacing around the windows actually this worried for the team I wasn’t even sure you wanted to be a part of…”

Lex sighed, as angry as she wanted to be, he did have a point. “Listen, every time I get comfortable or bond with anyone...something terrible always happens, so forgive me if I’m not eager to go through that again. It’s like I’m a curse or something...so yeah...I’m worried…”

Tony’s expression softened. “You’re not a curse…”

She laughed darkly. “You have no idea Tony. If something happens to them and it’s my fault-”

“Stop,” his tone was kind. “Come sit down and talk to me about why you think that…”

Tony had become some kind of father figure to her, so she found herself sliding into the seat next to him, though begrudgingly. “I...I…” she didn’t know where to start.

He squeezed her hand gently. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, but clearly you need to talk about it.”

She just nodded, keeping her eyes focused on the table in front of her. “Well...my whole family died in a fire when I was 9. They don’t even know how I survived. Then, like most orphans I bounced around in foster care until I aged out of the system. Then I was on my own moving from place to place and having no one. Anytime I made a friend it seemed they wanted something from me, or they would just up and disappear...and then...then…”

Tony stopped her when he saw the tears build up in her eyes. “I’m proud of you,” he said softly. Her eyes darted up to look at him, feeling confused as she tried to blink the tears back. “I know that was hard to talk about and you don’t have to go any further. None of that was your fault though Alexis…”

The sound of her full name caused the tears to begin escaping. She felt embarrassed as she hung her head to try and hide the fact she was crying.

“Hey,” Tony got up and sat on her side of the table, gently pulling her against him. She buried her face in his chest, horrified she was being this emotional. “Listen...I know whatever else happened will have been traumatic. I know your powers came from somewhere and it couldn’t have been an easy road. You don’t have to talk about it right now...or ever if you don’t want to. Just know that it’s not your fault either,” he soothed as he rubbed her back.

Truthfully, Lex had never had someone comfort her like this. No one had ever taken the time to tell her it wasn’t her fault. Tony didn’t know about the experiments, how many people she had killed, or what happened to Rachel...but he believed in her and that was enough for right now. “Thank you,” her voice was muffled against his shirt and she wasn’t even sure he heard her.

He gave her shoulders a tight squeeze in understanding and then she felt the soft rumble of a chuckle in his chest. “Hey. Point proven...look who's back…”

Lex’s head shot up as she hastily wiped away the tears. The sleek SUV had stopped in the driveway and she counted all four members of the team climbing out of it. They all looked fine and she breathed a sigh of relief. She did her best to pull herself together, knowing if Steve saw her crying he would be full of concern and wouldn’t be as casual about it as Tony.

She turned to beg Tony not to say anything, but when she looked at him he was already nodding as if he knew what she was going to say. “This stays between us. Let's go see them”.

“Lex!” Sam said with a grin as he saw her first. He pulled her into a tight hug. “Did you miss us?”

She laughed. “No...not at all…” she said sarcastically.

“I hope Tony kept you company,” Steve told her with a smile, glancing at Tony for reassurance.

Lex just nodded. “Yeah I hung out with everyone...don’t worry I wasn’t sulking in my room waiting for your return,” she muttered with a smirk. “How was your mission?”

“It was fine,” Natasha answered quickly. “We better get going. Fury will be here soon for the debrief,” she explained.

Bucky’s expression was blank, but a small smile ghosted against his lips as he raised an eyebrow at her. “Is it too much to hope that you actually listened to me and kept up with your training?”

Lex rolled her eyes. “Hi Buck. Good to see you too”.

“Wait...were you worried about us?” his smirk had widened.

“Steve said a couple days. A couple is two...not four,” she muttered.

Bucky laughed. “Wow. I never thought I’d see the day Lex Martin was worried about me,” his tone was teasing.

Lex was immediately trying to back pedal. “Don’t make this all about you Barnes. Who would I play scrabble with if something happened to Natasha?”

He playfully punched her arm. “It’s okay to admit that you missed my lessons Lex”.

She rolled her eyes, but was smiling despite herself. “You tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night”.

Bucky was still laughing as he followed the others down the hall to meet with Fury. Bruce, Wanda, and Vision had come down to the foyer to greet the others as well.

“Is it bad that I’m kind of jealous? I want to get into field work,” Lex chuckled as they all continued to the common room.

Bruce laughed. “Field work is not for me, but I can see you excelling at it”.

“You’ll get your shot,” Wanda told her confidently.   
“You look tired,” Lex pointed out the obvious when Natasha slunk into the seat next to her.

Natasha laughed and nodded, dragging her hands across her face. “We don’t sleep much on missions,” she groaned. “I’ll be looking forward to sleeping in a real bed tonight”.

“Where did you guys end up going?”

Natasha made an awkward face, but then tried to recover. “Just into the city…”

“Are you always this secretive about missions...or am I just not allowed to know?”

“We’re just supposed to keep it on the downlow right now. I’m sure any time now Fury will bring you in for an assessment and then you will be good to join us…”

“Assessment?” Lex questioned, no one had mentioned this to her before.

Natasha laughed. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not that bad and I’m sure Bucky will make sure you’re properly trained by then”.

Lex rolled her eyes. “Is meditating on the assessment?”

“Give him a chance,” Natasha laughed once again. “He has a point. I’m sure meditating will help you channel your thoughts and then channel your abilities”.

Lex nodded begrudgingly knowing she was probably right. “Well I’d better get going. I’m assuming Bucky will expect me at 8am tomorrow. He doesn’t seem like the type that will take a day off. I’m going to try and get some sleep”.

Natasha chuckled. “Have a good night”.

Lex fell asleep quickly, but wasn’t asleep long. Nightmare plagued her dreams and she kept seeing the memories Tony had triggered earlier. She sat straight up in bed, sweat causing her shirt to stick to her body, as she tried to clear the sounds of her best friend screaming from her mind.


	6. Chapter 6

Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe Bucky was going to take a day off from training. It was quarter after eight and she was still standing in the training room alone. She figured she might as well get some practice in while she was here.

A few minutes into her warm up round and the door opening got her attention. Bucky walked in looking as rough as she felt. It was apparent he hadn’t slept well either.

“Are you alright?” she tilted her head at him as she turned fully to face him.

He tried to smile. “Yeah. Fine. Just tired is all…”

“Part of me wants to chastise you for being late,” she teased.

Bucky smirked. “I know. I’m sorry...it’s just been a long couple of days”.

“Ah yes. Off on your secret mission,” Lex rolled her eyes. Suddenly Bucky’s eyes looked sad and she didn’t understand why. He was looking at her differently than before, it was unsettling. “Did something happen while you were in the field?”

He blinked as if he didn’t know what she was getting at. “No? I’m just-”

“Tired. Yeah I know,” she told him suspiciously.

“Ok. Show me what you worked on while I was away”.

She sighed heavily. “I thought you were tired”.

This caused him to smirk slightly. “I am...but I’m not the one that has to do the work”.

“Ugh. You’re the worst,” she joked, squaring herself up to the punching bag once again.

“Relax, you’ll get another few days off from dealing with me shortly. I’m going back out on the field the day after tomorrow, but try not to miss me so much this time,” he teased.

Lex whirled around to face him. “Again?”

“Aww you really are going to miss me…” he had been joking, but then he saw her frustrated expression. “What’s the matter?”

“You get to go on another mission? When do I get to go?”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “When you’re ready…” he replied simply.

“And who decides that? Fury? After my assessment? When were you planning on telling me about that by the way?”

“What are you really upset about? The fact that I said you’re not ready or that Fury is going to run an assessment before you’re allowed out?” Bucky was staring at her blankly.

“I feel as if it should be my decision when I feel ready and I really do think I’m ready…”

“You do?” Bucky asked with an eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face that was irritating her. “Really? Is that so?”

“Yes!” she raised her voice, he was being completely insufferable in her opinion. “What?” she rolled his eyes as he had begun to laugh. He gestured his hand at her and she quickly looked down to discover she had phased without even realizing it. “Dammit…” she whispered bitterly, much to Bucky’s pure amusement. “Oh shut up,” she snapped, but was laughing a little as well.

Bucky suddenly reached out and seemed surprised when his hand connected with her waist. “Whoah,” he grasped her hip gently and squeezed.

“What? I’m still here...you just can’t see me…” she chuckled as he continued to stare at his hand that seemed to be holding nothing. “Buck...I’m not a ghost...you’re not going to pass through me,” she reminded him. She grabbed his wrist, which seemed to freak him out a little. Understandable as he could feel the pressure from her hand, but couldn’t see it.

When she removed his hand from her hip he seemed slightly embarrassed. “Sorry…” he chuckled sheepishly. “Ok...well you’re like...well that...try and bring yourself back. Really focus…”

Lex took a deep breath and tried to still her mind. She imagined herself shifting, and really focused on every fibre of her being coming into view. She tried to remember some of the analogies from the meditation recordings about being a pebble in the ocean or a feather on the water, but she was pretty convinced she was mixing them up.

Bucky let out a small whoop of satisfaction and it caused her to open her eyes. She glanced down to see she had done it and before she knew it, Bucky had pulled her into a tight hug. “You did it. Lex! You did it!”

Lex laughed. “Am I the first person you’ve trained or something?”

He let her go, but looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”

“You were very enthusiastic over a very minor improvement. It’s as if this was your first victory…”

Bucky just laughed. “Yeah. You’re my first protege”. 

“Protege?” he chuckled. He then furrowed his eyebrows at her amused expression. “What?”

“I can’t believe you just hugged me. You didn’t seem like the touchy feely type”.

“Neither did you,” Bucky chuckled softly.

“That’s because I’m not…”

He bit his lip, but was still smirking at her. “Sorry…” She closed her eyes and tried to focus again to reverse what she had just done. “What are you doing?”

“Shh. I’m trying to see if I can shift on command. Let me know if anything happens,” she muttered, trying to picture the ocean again. She tried for a solid couple of minutes without success and then groaned heavily.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. That was a start…”

Lex snickered. “You’re all warm and fuzzy today. Maybe you should get less sleep more often,” she teased. “What’s up with you? You’re being super weird today…”

Bucky looked away from her. “I’m just-”

“Please don’t tell me you’re tired again…”

He sighed heavily again. “It’s just...you don’t have to keep up with this tough girl persona. Stop, before you argue…” he cut her off right as she was about to protest. “I know you don’t like talking about what happened to you, but remember that I went through something as well. I understand how you’re feeling. I was standoffish and kept to myself for a while afterwards as well...I just need you to know there’s no weakness in being vulnerable. Talking about it really helped me process it…”

“Did you just call me standoffish?” she laughed.

“Lex. Don’t try to make it into a joke. I’m serious…”

“Yeah Bucky, you’re the super talkative type,” she rolled her eyes. “You’ve never really told me everything that happened to you and I don’t like talking about what happened to me…”

Bucky smiled slightly. “I wasn’t suggesting that you had to spill your secrets to me over a coffee break or something...though I am here if you wanted to talk it out. I see a therapist every week...where do you think I disappear after dinner on Wednesdays? She’s good and I think it would be beneficial for you…”

Lex blinked a few times. This was a very open version of Bucky. At first she was bitter that he was getting on her about not opening up, when he himself wasn’t an open kind of person...but all of a sudden he was. Did he trust her now or something?

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said softly. “Thank you…”

Bucky gently squeezed her arm. “Meditating today? Or are you not in the mood?” 

His tone was teasing, but she straightened up and furrowed her eyebrows. “We’ve barely started…”

He was grinning at her now. “That a girl!”

They settled in and Bucky put on the recording. Lex didn’t want to admit it, but having Bucky there did help her concentrate. She hadn’t made great progress on her own, but he seemed to know when her mind was drifting and would gently guide her back.

Lex stood up and stretched afterwards looking to Bucky who was standing up slowly next to her. His eyes looked heavy as he yawned. “Did you fall asleep?”

Bucky laughed. “Honestly it was pretty close…”

“Me too,” Lex admitted.

“Hey. While you’re zenned out...why don’t you try shifting again? If you’re up for it?”

She just nodded. “I’m always up for it…” she focused her mind and tried to imagine her skin tingling and smiled when she heard Bucky make a noise next to her. She opened her eyes and wasn’t surprised to discover she had done it.

“Way to go,” Bucky was grinning at her.

She smiled. “As it turns out I had a good trainer…” He looked touched and she laughed suddenly. “Now lets hope I can get back…”


	7. Chapter 7

Lex was slightly annoyed, still watching the same team set out again, without knowing where they were going or why. She allowed herself a moment to process the fact that what she was actually feeling was jealousy.

Tony clapped her on the shoulder as he found her still staring out the front window long after they had left. “Is this worry or envy?”

She turned and shot him a smile. “If you’re going to force me to admit it...it’s envy”.

“Don’t worry. Your time will come!”

“So everyone keeps telling me…”

Tony moved past her to pour them each a cup of coffee. “I heard that you’ve been making progress. Bucky was bragging that you managed to shift a few times on purpose now,” he smirked at her.

Lex just laughed. “Yup...on purpose, which is a very nice change…”

Tony nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “How are you with a handgun?”

She sputtered on her coffee. “I beg your pardon?”

Tony laughed. “It’s just that once you get your power under control, Fury is going to run his assessment to deem you worthy for the field. I know Bucky had been training you in defense and hand to hand combat...but you’re going to want some weapons training to go along with that…”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

He nodded. “We can go over stuff in the lab later. Let’s go down to the weapons room for a little target practice?”

Lex nodded eagerly in agreement. “That sounds wonderful…”

They finished their coffee and then walked together down to the weapons room. Tony unlocked and pulled open the gun cabinet and watched her look over them thoughtfully. She selected one and picked it up to examine it closer.

Tony chuckled. “That’s one of Natasha’s favourites too”. Lex just smiled and practiced pointing it at the wall. Tony raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t your first time with a weapon is it?”

Lex shook her head. “No...no it isn’t…”

Tony looked relatively surprised, but picked up a pair of earmuffs and plunked them on her head. She adjusted them while sticking her tongue out at him and he gestured to the booth behind them.

Lex saddled up, removed the safety, and fired a few times at the target. She didn’t have the best aim, but it wasn’t terrible either. After a few minutes she hit the target almost in the center and turned to Tony for approval.

Tony just nodded to her and shrugged. “I’m not much of a gun guy myself...but you’re not bad,” he smiled. 

She was happy to practice for a little over an hour before she was tired. Her aim had become more consistent, but was far from perfect. “I want to add this to my training routine I think,” she told Tony happily.

“It’s a great way to get aggression out,” Tony pointed out.

“Aggression?”

Tony smirked. “I’m just saying you’re a lot nicer after a training session,” he teased.

Lex knew she should be insulted, but she found herself laughing despite herself. “I suppose you have a point…”

She suddenly noticed the way Tony was looking at her. Almost as if it was with sympathy, she narrowed her eyes at him but his expression didn’t change. 

“Tony?” she questioned slowly. “Why did you really bring me down here? Everyone has been acting weird around me since they got back from their mission...what’s going on?”

Tony bit his lip then carefully plucked the gun from her hands and set it down. He sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. “Ok listen...I’m not supposed to tell you this but…”

“Tony…”

He sighed again. “Fury told them what happened to you...before you freak out, I don’t think he told them everything. They’ve been sent to spy on the team who kidnapped and tortured you. You’re probably not the only one so they have to be stopped…”

Lex could feel her heart hammering in her chest angrily. “I should be there then. I know the ins and outs better than anyone…”

“Yes, but you’re not ready for the field and they knew it would be hard on you”.

“I can handle it,” Lex told him firmly. “What if they’re walking right into a trap and don’t know it? What if something happens to them and I could have prevented it?”

“Right now they are only tracking the HYDRA’s movements and workings. They’re not going to engage with them. They just want to discover how many people they’ve kidnapped…”

Lex was shaking her head wildly. “Did they see anyone when they were there?”

Tony shook his head. “No, but they saw some of the devices they would have used on you. Even Bucky said it was horrific and he had been tortured himself…”

Tears began spilling down her face, but for once she didn’t care. “There wouldn’t be anyone else...because I...because I killed them…”

Tony blinked a few times and then asked slowly. “What do you mean?”

She took a deep and shaky breath. “There were others that they were trying their experiments on. A lot of them didn’t even survive the experimentation process...but the ones who did...well...they had us fight each other to the death. When it came down to it, it was either me or them. I didn’t want to do it Tony...I almost just let them kill me...but they had my friend. The only person I could ever count on and they told me they’d kill her if I didn’t do what they said…”

His eyes were wide and full of sympathy, which she hated but knew he needed to understand. “I’m sorry Lex. That’s horrible…”

She shook her head. “The worst part is...they killed her anyway. Slowly, right in front of me…”

“I can’t imagine…” he told her softly.

Now that she had started, the stories kept spilling out of her. “And after I escaped it was like they were following me around. Anyone that got too close to me...ended up dead. My old roommate, the guy at the coffee shop who gave me a free scone one day...I’m cursed…”

“You’re not cursed,” Tony placed a hand on each of her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “I see why you’re so worried about the team, but they can handle it and you’re safe here”. She nodded slowly, not exactly believing him, but she trusted him. Tony pulled her in tight for a hug and smoothed her hair back.

“We’ve got to stop making this a habit,” she mumbled into his shoulder with a small chuckle after a few minutes of letting him comfort her.

“I knew you were a big softy,” Tony teased as he let her go.

She laughed and wiped away the remaining tears. “Thanks Tony…”

“I’m here for you kid,” he clapped her on the shoulder. “But don’t think crying in front of me will get you out of helping in the lab. Bruce tired it a couple of times on me and I won’t budge…”

Lex burst into a fit of genuine laughter as they packed everything up and headed out of the weapons room. Her heart was suddenly swelling in gratefulness for Tony. He was the perfect balance of comfort and humour. He didn’t force her to talk about her feelings for longer than she could handle, but was clear in his intentions to support her if she needed it.

Her heart panged suddenly worried for him, for everyone. What if the curse was real? Or they found out where she was and that the team was helping her. What would happen to them?

She tried her best to concentrate on the task at hand and be a valuable addition to the lab, but her brain kept imagining Steve, Sam, Nat, and Bucky wandering into an ambush. Then she was wondering if they had kidnapped anyone else. Maybe other people were being put through what she went through and she knew they had to be stopped.

Lex was grateful for Fury as he clearly deemed this unacceptable and was having them work to stop it, but perhaps they were moving too slowly. In her opinion they should just get out anyone that was there against their will and then blow the entire underground lab into pieces.

“You okay?” Bruce startled her by placing a fresh cup of coffee next to her.

She smiled quickly as she accepted it. “I’m great! Thanks for this”.

He nodded, but raised an eyebrow as if he was concerned for her. She just kept smiling, hoping to appease him, but her mind was already formulating a plan.


	8. Chapter 8

She was used to doing things on her own. Even still as the sun rose that morning she was still nervous. The compound had become a little safe haven for her and being back in the bustling city was suddenly unnerving. 

At least she could blend in here with all the people already awake and on their way to school, work, or wherever else. They didn’t call it the city that never sleeps for nothing. 

It hadn’t been hard for her to wait for the others to go to sleep, then sneak down to the weapons room, grab what she needed, and set off on her own. If they didn’t want her going anywhere they shouldn’t have kept a garage full of vehicles so easily accessible.

Vision was the only one she had trouble navigating. He didn’t exactly sleep, so she had to sneak by him to get to the garage. Fortunately he hadn’t seemed to notice, but she knew she was on limited time before they noticed her absence in the morning. Hopefully she would be on a bus to Washington by then.

She hadn’t been back there since she had escaped. She had grabbed all her belongings and made her way straight to New York City knowing it was so busy it was her best chance of blending in. They of course seemed to always know her whereabouts...that is until Steve came for her.

The sleek SUV she had borrowed was much too suspicious, so she parked it in the bus terminals parking lot. Lex understood how much she was risking as she boarded the bus and headed back to the place she swore she would never return. If she could help in any way she knew it would have been worth it.

As the hours ticked by she found herself becoming more and more anxious. She was sure the others at the compound would have realized she was gone at this point. Tony would know exactly where. Would he try and stop her?

She tried her best to focus her thoughts and not let herself spiral into anxiety, but it wasn’t easy. She just prayed she wouldn’t accidentally shift and give the people on the bus around her a heart attack.

With a sigh of relief the bus arrived and she grabbed her backpack, slipping out with the crowd. She knew exactly the path to take to find her way back to the hellhole she had come from. She was eager to find the others as soon as possible.

Up top the building just looked like your stereotypical warehouse. She never really had a good look at the outside before, but looking at it now you would never expect it to be housing the horrors she knew that it was. 

Lex remembered being dragged into the building, kicking and fighting against it. They had her hands bound behind her back and a cloth wrapped around her mouth to muffle her screaming.

She shuddered, trying not to think about it as she looked around for any sign of the team. If they were truly surveilling they were doing a great job, she couldn’t see anything. She inched closer, being extra careful to stay on the perimeter and not be seen.

It was only when she made her way to the back of the building and heard the gunfire that had her barreling towards the open rear door. She rushed inside and was surprised to find no one, usually the exits were guarded. She could hear sounds of a struggle echoing up the stairwell below and took them two at a time with her gun pointed at the way ahead.

She quickly found the source of the commotion. A girl was struggling against one of the guards and right as Lex went to assist her she shot some kind of aura out of her hands that sent him flying.

“Are you alright?” Lex asked quickly.

“Who are you?” the girl asked, keeping her fists up as if she was going to attack her next.

Lex put her hands up to show she was a friend. “I’m...an agent,” she explained quickly. She hadn’t had her assessment yet and therefore didn’t exactly have a title. “I have powers too. I came to help. To see if anyone else was being tortured here…”

The girl's eyes softened as tears welled up in them. “I’ve got to get out of here…”

“Yes. C’mon...I was looking for my friends, but I’ll help you get out first. My name’s Lex…”

“Ashley,” the other girl told her with a small smile.

Ashley looked rough and Lex knew that’s what she looked like when she escaped herself. Her blonde hair was matted and she was covered in dirt and dried blood. 

Lex heard footsteps on the staircase from where she came and cursed under her breath. They couldn’t go back that way, she really thought it would be that simple. She motioned Ashley to follow her as they took off running down the hallway.

Lex carefully pushed open the double doors that led to what looked like a communication centre. Luckily no one was inside so they slipped in silently and cautiously moved towards the other end of the room towards another set of doors.

“I’m pretty sure there’s another exit over here,” Lex whispered.

Ashley nodded. “How long were you kept here?”

Lex thought for a moment. “Honestly...I don’t know the exact amount of time, but long enough. We can talk about that later. We really have to get out of here…”

More gunfire sounded in the hall beyond the door and when Lex peered through the window she found Natasha kicking and punching a handful of enemy agents. Lex didn’t even think twice before shoving open the door and joining into the frey.

She had fought before, but this was completely different. Before she fought for survival, but now it was her job, her purpose. Natasha’s eyes widened as she saw her, but then she flashed her a smile.

“Lex! What are you doing here? C’mon we have to get to the others,” Natasha called to her.

Lex nodded, Ashley was right behind her, as they followed Natasha down the hallway, watching their backs as they went. As they rounded the corner they almost crashed directly into Bucky.

Bucky’s eyes widened in horror. “What the hell is she doing here?” he breathed to Natasha.

“I came to help,” Lex stated the obvious.

“You shouldn’t be here. You’re not ready for the field!” Bucky argued.

Lex shot at the guy that was coming down the hall behind Bucky. “Don’t get distracted,” she reminded him sarcastically. “Don’t worry. I got this!”

“Lex...what if you get hurt? Get out of here!”

“I’ll be fine Bucky,” she insisted.

“You don’t get it. I’m responsible for you,” he growled.

She glared at him. “Last time I checked I was responsible for myself,” she shouted back.

Bucky grabbed her wrist and tugged her out of the way, just as a bullet shot past her. He widened his eyes as if to prove his point and she shuddered realizing that had been a close one. Natasha was already fighting the person responsible for shooting at her. Ashley was doing her best at holding off another man behind them.

Natasha took the guy out and turned to Bucky and Lex. “You two need to quit arguing. We have to get to Steve and Sam. Lex is here Bucky whether you like it or not so just deal with it”.

Lex childishly wanted to stick out her tongue at him, but resisted. “Where are Steve and Sam?” she directed her question at Natasha since Bucky was still fuming.

“They were trying to get some information off the harddrives about what they were doing to people here. We could have used your hacking abilities,” she grinned at her.

Finally a doorway was in sight and the group raced towards it. Thankfully Sam and Steve were coming down the other hallway. “Lex?” Sam exclaimed. “Good to have you here!”

“At least you’re excited to see me,” she chuckled bitterly.

Bucky huffed next to her. “Let's just get out of here…”

A couple more agents had found them. One of them grabbed Ashley, she tried to fight them off, but somehow they were restraining her. Lex turned and ran back for her, firing her weapon at the men, who were quickly returning fire.

“Lex! Lex!” Bucky was screaming at her, but she ignored him.

She launched herself at the man holding onto Ashley, knocking the other girl free. Lex put her training into practice and grappled with the man. A second man had been trying to grab Ashley again, but Bucky was there fighting him off.

Suddenly one of the men tossed an explosive into the hallway between them. Lex’s eyes fell on it and in a panic she looked to the others. “Go. Bucky...take Ashley and get out of here,” she begged as the man she had been fighting forcefully grabbed her. He pressed his gun against her temple and she shuddered. “Go…”

Bucky’s eyes were large as he stared at her in horror, clearly unsure of his next move. The beeping from the explosive on the ground was getting louder. Lex concentrated on shifting and despite her absolute terror managed to pull it off. She heard the man yelp in surprise and kicked his legs out from under him to escape.

She saw Bucky smiling as he turned to run down the hall, but it was too late. The explosive went off, sending her flying forwards into the hard ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. Lex got a little reckless!


	9. Chapter 9

The pain in her head surged as she forced open her eyes. Surprisingly she wasn’t shocked to find herself in the hospital, but struggled to piece together how she ended up there. The explosion was clear in her mind as she sat up, wondering what had happened to the others.

The machine next to her beeped as her heart race increased and a nurse stepped in to check on her. “Good to see you awake,” she said kindly, moving over to look at the monitors.

“My friends?” Lex tried, her voice cracking.

The nurse looked at her sympathetically. “A few of them have been waiting for you to wake up. I’ll let them know they can come in now,” she told her softly.

Lex watched her leave feeling a nervous pit in her stomach at the look on her face. She wasn’t religious, but found herself praying to anyone who would listen that they were okay.

Steve, Natasha and Sam walked in a few minutes later. They had a few bruises and scratches, but were otherwise unscathed.

“Lex!” Natasha was hugging her as gently as she could as the other two stared at her with soft smiles on their face. “We were so worried about you”.

“Bucky?” she questioned, her voice still hoarse and painful. 

“He’s still unconscious…” Steve told her gently. “But they think he’s going to make it”.

“They think?” Lex panicked. She put her face in her hands. “He shouldn’t have come back for me. This is all my fault”.

“It’s not your fault. You were trying to save someone. It was a very noble thing to do,” Sam assured her.

“Oh god. What happened to Ashley?”

Steve’s jaw clenched and she felt her heart drop. “She...I’m so sorry Lex...she didn’t make it…”

Tears began to pour down her face. “No...I promised I’d get her out of there…”

“You did everything you could Lex. You risked your life for someone you just met. You can’t beat yourself up about this…” Steve told her firmly.

“Don’t you see? People around me always end up dying. I knew I shouldn’t have tried to be a hero. I’m better off on my own,” she felt as if she was going to start hyperventilating. 

“Lex, calm down. I know it’s hard to lose people, but you can’t blame yourself. You’ll never be on your own again, because you’re stuck with us now,” Natasha was squeezing her arm.

“Ashley is dead. Bucky could have died. I can’t do this…”

They continued to offer her words of support and comfort, but Lex kept imagining Ashley’s hopeful eyes when she told her she had come to help her. Why couldn’t she have gotten her out? Then at least she would have felt like she had a purpose and had done something helpful. Instead she was dead and Bucky was lying in a hospital bed. 

A few hours later the doctors allowed her to be discharged, but she refused to leave the hospital. Instead, with Steve’s assistance, she limped her way across the hall to see Bucky. He was completely still, aside from the slow rise and fall of his chest. He had purple bruises around his cheekbones and a gash on his forehead. Despite everything he somehow looked peaceful.

Lex moved over to the side of the bed to get a closer look at him. Her stomach twisted until she felt nauseous knowing the whole reason he was so close to the blast was because he had turned to help her.

“Ugh this is my fault,” she moaned under her breath.

“It’s not and Bucky wouldn’t be pleased to hear you blaming yourself…”

Lex turned to look at Steve with tears in her eyes. “He said I was his responsibility and that I shouldn’t have been there and maybe he was right…”

Knowing there was no point in arguing further, Steve just sympathetically rubbed her back. Lex just kept staring at Bucky, allowing the feelings of guilt to wash over her. This is why she didn’t like getting close to people. She wasn’t even sure she would consider them friends, mentor and mentee maybe, but they weren’t rushing out to have a coffee together...but even still, seeing him like this was too much for her.

Eventually Bucky stirred and both Lex and Steve moved closer to see him. His blue eyes fluttered open and his brow furrowed as he tried to process what had happened.

“Hey,” Lex said softly as his eyes fell on her. His confusion deepened. “Do you remember what happened?”

“The explosion,” his voice was even more crackly than hers had been. He suddenly closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You didn’t listen to me…”  
Her heart race increased. “I know. Buck I know...I’m so sorry…”

Buky just sighed heavily, keeping his eyes closed. “Why didn’t you just listen to me Lex?”

She bit her lip and tried to hold back the tears. He was clearly still pissed at her. “I’m sorry…” she whispered again.

His eyes opened to look her over. “Are you okay?”

“A little bruised...but I’m fine,” she mumbled.

“Good. Then I don’t have to feel guilty for being angry with you…”

“Buck,” Steve cut in, his voice was firm as if he was trying to convince him to lay off.

“What? She shouldn’t have been there...she hadn’t been cleared for field duty and then I wouldn’t have had to go back for her,” he told him harshly.

“She was just-”

“No. He’s right,” Lex cut Steve off, not wanting him to try and defend her again. “He’s right...I shouldn’t have been there. I wanted to help but instead I’ve ruined everything,” and with that she got up and gingerly walked out of the room.

She didn’t cry, she didn’t think she could anymore. She just felt hollow as she wandered down the hallway. Tony was waiting for her in the waiting room to drive her back to the compound. He smiled weakly at her when he saw her walk in.

“I’m sorry I took off on you. Feel free to tell me how angry you are,” she muttered as he gave her a quick and gentle hug.

“I’m not angry at you. Many of us have gone out when we shouldn’t have because we wanted to do the right thing. You don’t have to feel ashamed for that. I was just worried about you,” Tony told her simply.

They began walking towards the car, but Lex was shaking her head. “Tony, I told you I was cursed. There was this girl I tried to help and now she’s dead. And Bucky...Bucky is in a hospital bed because I put him there. He’s so mad at me that I’m sure he won’t ever forgive me…”

Tony laughed gently. “Bucky will come around. Natasha told me about the girl and that you did everything you could for her. It isn’t your fault…”

Lex just nodded, sick of people telling her the same thing. They just didn’t seem to get it. She was silent the whole ride back, Tony had tried making light conversation, but when he didn’t get much of a response he opted to turn up the radio instead.

She allowed the music to wash over her as she tried to zone out and forget about Ashley’s terrified expression when she found her or Bucky’s bitterness as she had tried to apologize.

When she arrived at the compound everyone had been over cheerful, clearly trying to overcompensate for her terrible mood. She had done her best to smile, answer their questions, and try and appreciate their enthusiasm for having her back.

The only one who wasn’t enthusiastic and pleased to see her was Fury. He called her into the board room and walked up one side of her and down the other. It’s what she expected and what she felt like she deserved. She just sat there nodding and feeling numb as he told her what an irresponsible thing she had done and that this is why he didn’t want her on the mission in the first place. According to him, her emotions had gotten in the way and both she and Bucky could have been killed, let alone anyone else. He was right and she wasn’t even upset when he told her he would be putting off her assessment, because she clearly wasn’t ready for field work if she couldn’t resist sneaking out and getting herself into things she shouldn’t be.

Once she was dismissed she told the others she wasn’t hungry and shuffled to her bedroom. She looked around at the four walls that had become a sort of sanctuary for her over the last few months. She knew this was the closest thing to a home she would ever have, but now more than ever she felt as if she didn’t deserve it.

Lex sighed as she tried to count up the few belongings she had as she slowly began to pack. This time when she snuck out she wouldn’t be coming back. It was time for her to put this chapter behind her, she had promised Steve she would try and she had. This clearly wasn’t for her and she was determined to get out before anyone else got hurt because of her.

She hadn’t the slightest plan on where to go, but she just knew she couldn’t stay here. Even if the others acted like they were happy for her to be around she suspected that Bucky was the only one who had been honest with her.

“You don’t have to go,” a voice came from behind her.


	10. Chapter 10

Bucky stood in the doorway looking as battered as ever. He was leaning against the doorframe for support as he stared at her.

“When did you get back?” she asked quietly.

“Just now. I had a feeling I’d find you packing…”

She set her jaw and looked away from him. “I’ve been too much of a burden on everyone...you especially, so I’m going to free you from that burden…”

Bucky sighed. “You’re not a burden. I’m sorry...I was way too harsh earlier. I was just upset…”

“And you have every right to be. Don’t apologize because Steve talked you into it..”

He smiled despite himself. “Steve didn’t talk me into it. I truly feel terrible…” he groaned. “Can I come in? I need to sit down…”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah...here,” she got up and allowed him to sit on her bed. He smiled gratefully. “I forgive you. Thanks for trying to help me...I’d better get going…”

Bucky grasped her hand to stop her from leaving. “Lex stop,” he said firmly, tugging her so she would sit back down next to him. “You are being irrational…”

“Irrational?” she repeated. “You admitted everything that happened was my fault...and this isn’t the first time people around me have died or gotten hurt. Excuse me for wanting to remove myself from here so nothing else happens to you…”

“Tony told me you think you’re cursed. I didn’t know and I’m sorry for putting more blame on you,” he said softly. Lex was over his apologizes and once again tried to leave, but he stopped her. “Lex, just hear me out. The reason I was so upset is that I’m supposed to be your superior officer, which means I monitor your training and decide when you’re ready to be assessed. Then I’d take you with me on smaller missions and work you up to one like the one we went on. I also know how traumatizing it would be to go back to where you were tortured...I know because I did it too. I wanted to protect you from that. I wanted to protect you from everything, but seeing the way you rushed back in to aid that girl...I was terrified. I thought for sure you were done for and I couldn’t let that happen. You’re my responsibility whether you like it or not…”

The realization slowly dawned on her. “I’m your first trainee...and you thought you didn’t do a good enough job…”

Bucky nodded. “I thought my first trainee was going to die right in front of me…”

“Well...for the record I think you’re doing a great job,” she told him softly. “It was killing me to sit here knowing you were all out there going after my captures. I felt like it should have been me. I wanted my own sort of revenge and I kept imagining one of you getting hurt and feeling like it was on my account...though I guess that happened anyway…”

Bucky chuckled quietly. “I know how hard it is to be left behind from a mission. I get what you were thinking. Again, I’m sorry for flipping out at you...before I left I…” Lex looked at him curiously when he trailed off and he tried again. “That day in the gym...where I kept telling you I was tired. I had found out what happened to you the night before and then proceeded to have a nightmare where you went back there and died...and I couldn’t help you. I know it was just a dream, but I told myself it couldn’t come true because you weren’t there...but then you showed up and I just lost my mind. It felt like a dark premonition coming true…”

She scrunched up her face. “I’m sorry...I had no idea…”

“Of course you didn’t,” he shot a smirk at her. “I don’t really talk to you. I sit here wondering why you don’t open up to me...your so called ‘mentor’...but I never really talk to you and I think that needs to change”.

A small smile pulled at her lips. “Is Bucky Barnes saying he wants to hang out with me more?” she teased.

He laughed and the sound was like music to her ears. “Now I hope this means you’re staying…”

Lex nodded. “Yeah. Yeah I’m going to stay”.

“Good,” he playfully punched her shoulder. “I was actually impressed when I saw you kicking ass back there. Remind me not to get on your bad side,” he teased.

“You were just on my bad side Barnes and I managed to resist kicking your ass,” she shot back, sticking her tongue out at him.

He just laughed and slowly pushed himself to his feet. “Get some sleep,” he told her.

“You’re not seriously planning on training me tomorrow are you?”

Bucky shook his head, amusement clearly written on his face. “No no. I think we’ve both earned a couple days off...but regardless you’ve had a crazy day”.

Lex just nodded. “Good night Buck!” she called quietly after him, hearing him mumble a response from the hallway.

She felt a little lighter as she tried to get to sleep that night, but she kept thinking about Ashley which made sleep difficult. It would have been nice to have someone to talk to about a shared experience and work through their powers together. She tried to take a steadying breath and repeat the words the others kept telling her. That it wasn’t her fault and that she did all she could.

Lex wasn’t sure how much sleep she got, but when she rolled over at 5:30am and was wide awake she decided there was no point in fighting it any longer. She got up, had a shower, and made her way to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

While she waited for it to brew, she moved to the large windows and looked out over the grounds below. It was so early the sun wasn’t quite peeking up above the horizon, but the sky had started to turn a deep orange as if it would soon.

She yawned and headed over to grab a mug as the coffee finished brewing. She turned when she heard a noise behind her, and with a smile grabbed a second mug.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

Bucky smiled and gratefully accepted the mug of coffee she handed him. “Not in the slightest,” he tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. 

They walked over to the bench in the window and slid in across from each other. “As much fun as the training sessions are...I won’t miss it today. I’m far too tired. I’d probably fall asleep meditating and you’d be so mad at me,” she teased.

He just laughed and took a sip of his coffee. “You managed to use your powers while under a great deal of stress on mission though...so clearly something I’ve shown you has worked…”

Lex just nodded. “Yeah...as much as I hate to admit it. It really did seem to help...and I’m not shifting by accident as much anymore!”

“That’s great,” he murmured approvingly. “How are you feeling?”

She was a little taken aback from his question. “Physically or psychologically?” she tried to make her tone nonchalant, but failed.

Bucky’s blue eyes were searching hers. “Both,” he said with a gentle smile.

Lex sighed. “Physically I’m a little achy...psychologically...well lets just add another notch to the horrors I’ve seen…” she bit her lip. “You?”

“Physically I’m alright and psychologically I’m adding another notch to my horror column as well,” he smiled and she watched his forehead wrinkle as he raised his eyebrows. “I was serious about trying to be more open with you ya know…you can ask me anything you want to know…”

“Anything?” she repeated and smirked when his eyes widened. “Like when the last time you had-”

“Ok almost anything,” he cut her off with a laugh.

“I was just going to ask when was the last time you had a really good burger...no need to get weird,” she teased, causing him to laugh again. This new smiley Bucky was something she could see herself getting used to. “Ok...but honestly. What was it like waking up from whatever it was they used to put you under?”

“It was cryogenesis,” Bucky told her simply. “And it was cold and felt like being awoken the second after you finally fell asleep”.

Lex made a face. “Did you freak out when you saw how far technology advanced...like Steve did?” she chuckled remembering Natasha teasing Steve about it.

Bucky shrugged. “Not really. I wasn’t under for as long as Steve. They woke me up every so many years so it seemed more gradual. They also did a fantastic job of wiping my memory each time so I didn’t even know who I was, let alone notice human advancements,” he laughed slightly, but it made her cringe.

“I’m sorry Buck. I can’t imagine being brainwashed and experimented on for that long,” she told him softly.

He smiled gently. “You at least understand some of the trauma that goes hand in hand with that. People tell me they’re sorry all the time, but when you say it I believe you”.

She smiled back. “Yeah I get it. Being strapped to a chair while they inject a mystery substance into your arm isn’t the most fun I’ve ever had. Especially after seeing others go through it before me...and die. I never understood how I withstood it...I’m not particularly strong or extraordinary…” 

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Tony cut in. Lex turned to look at him, not sure how long he had been standing there. “Bruce and I want to run a few tests if you’ll allow us?”


	11. Chapter 11

Despite having had so many injections and blood tests previously, Lex still hated needles. She tried not to wince as Bruce took blood sample after blood sample. Bucky had tried to advocate for her, saying she deserved a day off to rest, but she was too curious about Tony’s test to refuse him.

The ‘science bros’ as she had dubbed them, much to Tony’s amusement, were analyzing the data from the blood samples and spewing all kinds of terminology she didn’t understand. Bruce was hyper focused on some sort of cell pattern that shouldn’t be there. Tony seemed intrigued by it, but she was concerned. A cell pattern that shouldn’t be there? What had they done to her?

They were interrupted before too long as there was an unexpected arrival that drew everyone's attention. Thor had arrived with his brother Loki in tow and both of them seemed shaken up and disheveled.

Everyone gathered in the common room as Thor told them the horrifying story of their mothers death and how Dark Elves had stormed Asgard. They had gotten it under control, but their father had basically cast them out for the time being in his despair. He thought his sons were better suited on Midgard assisting them with their problems, while he himself would repair Asgard.

Thor had been rash in his desire to help a mortal woman whom he loved and he had busted Loki out of Asgard’s prison to assist him. Though they had saved the girl's life, she had been eager to return home to her work and a safer life, leaving Thor in a bit of a tizy. 

Loki seemed amused by this whole situation. Most of the Avenger had fought him before so they weren’t keen on seeing him back there. Thor was somehow sticking up for him on the account that Loki had helped him with his plan and even made an effort to sacrifice his life to save both Jane and Thor himself.

People were still grumbling about him being there late into the afternoon. It was also that point when Thor realized Lex was new there and they had never met.

“I am Thor. God of Thunder,” he told her boldly. He made an effort to shake her hand, but apparently didn’t understand his own strength.

“Lex,” she replied simply. “I’ve heard a lot about you…”

Thor beamed at her. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me then as well?” Loki’s cool voice asked from beside her.

“Yes...but I’ve heard less good things about you,” she told him, narrowing her eyes slightly.

A wide grin split across Loki’s face as he looked at Thor. “I like her,” he smirked.

Lex just rolled her eyes, as if this place needed more testosterone. Natasha seemed to be thinking the same thing as she and Wanda stood near the counter talking quietly about something. Natasha waved her over when they made eye contact.

“You seem pleased to see Thor and Loki…” Lex teased.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Thor is great...but last time I saw Loki he was trying to take over New York City…”

“Thor says he’s been forgiven of those crimes though...that it was a misunderstanding…” Wanda reasoned.

“I don’t see how,’ Natasha said bitterly.

“I was blamed for what happened in Lagos…” Wanda reminded her.

“You have a point Wanda. I’m just surprised you’re defending him”.

Wanda smiled. “Don’t get me wrong. I believe in second chances, but if he steps out of line again I’ll take him out myself…”

Lex smiled. “Remind me not to get on your bad side”.

The three of them laughed, drawing attention from a few of the guys who raised their eyebrows in confusion. This only made them laugh harder. 

“I feel like I’m infiltrating a girls club,” Steve teased as he came over to join them.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Why do men always get nervous when they see girls talking to each other?” she laughed. “We were just discussing our opinions on Loki’s return…”

Steve sighed heavily. “I’m not super pleased about it myself, but if Thor’s willing to vouch for him I’m going to give him another chance”.

Lex glanced over to where Loki was lounging against the bench in the window. He was examining his cuticles with a bored sort of expression. “He seems kind of harmless,” she chuckled.

Steve just raised his eyebrows at her. “You didn’t see him in action. I’d issue caution around him, he’s charming, but I promise you that he’s dangerous…”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she promised.

Tony and Bruce had returned to the lab, but assured her she didn’t have to sit there and wait. They promised they would come find her if they figured anything out. She was trying to relax and rest as she had promised many of the others she would, but she was already feeling a little stir crazy.

She was sipping at her tea when Loki wandered in. His cool grey eyes regarded her for a moment and he shot her what she assumed was supposed to be a smile in greeting.

“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked quietly. Lex just shrugged and gestured at the seat across from her. Loki folded himself into the seat and peered at her from across the table. “I hear you have been given some extraordinary powers”.

“And I hear you tried to murder half of New York…”

Loki laughed. “You’re very direct aren’t you?” He was looking at her with great amusement. “I’m just curious how a mortal was able to develop something like this? I know Bruce was infected with gamma radiation, Steve was some kind of serum...but what happened to you?”

“Why so curious about my past Loki?”

“I’m merely curious about mortals being able to harness things they shouldn’t,” he replied simply.

“I love how you say the word ‘mortal’ as if we are disgusting and beneath you”.

He smiled once more, but this time it looked strained as if he was forcing it. He was clearly already annoyed by her unwillingness to talk to him. “I mean no disrespect…”

“I just met you. I don’t really feel like disclosing the details of being experimented on,” she stated.

He raised his eyebrows. “Fair enough…”

They were both quiet for a little while. Lex just sipping at her tea and having a hard time believing she was sitting across from a being from another planet, and Loki staring out the window, looking as bored as ever.

“So what do you do for fun on Asgard?” Lex asked him curiously. 

His eyes fell on her as he seemed to need a minute to process what she had asked. Then, as usual a smirk graced his lips. “Well, I am to be the advisor to Thor when he takes over for my father...so I typically spend most of my days in strategy meetings. If I am given an ounce of free time I take a walk or spend time reading in the library…”

Lex chuckled. “A very noble life you must lead…”

Loki was still smirking as his calculating gaze swept over her once more. It was as if he was trying to understand her entire life, just by looking at her. She had to admit it was unsettling, though a little amusing. 

Tony showed up a few moments later looking between them curiously. “Can I borrow you?

Lex just nodded and stood up, shooting another look back at Loki. “Good chat Loki,” she teased and watched him try and suppress a smile.

The pair walked into the hallway before Tony spoke. “Were you just flirting with a mass murderer?” his tone was more teasing than accusatory, but there was a hint of underlying concern.

“I wouldn’t call it flirting,” she laughed. “Everyone’s just so up in arms about him being here so I was trying to get a read on him”.

Tony just nodded as they walked into a lab to find Bruce holding a chart. He smiled warily at her when he saw her. “Hey Lex…”

“Why are you both looking at me like that?” she was quickly feeling defensive.

Bruce sighed. “We can’t be certain about this...as we don’t have your blood chart from before you gained your powers...but...it looks like you have some other DNA that a normal human wouldn’t have...and whatever they did to you unlocked it. It was as if it was lying in wait and they somehow triggered it…”

“Other DNA?” she repeated in disbelief. “What kind of other DNA?”

Tony raked a hand through his hair and tried to keep his voice as nonchalant as possible. “Non-human DNA…”


	12. Chapter 12

Tony had to quickly grab a chair to catch Lex as she just fell back in disbelief. “You’re saying I’m an alien…”

Bruce shook his head. “No. You just have strands of alien DNA. It was either always there...or they somehow fused it with your blood and now it’s altered your genetic makeup…”

“So I’m an alien now…”

Bruce bit his lip. “I wouldn’t call you that...but looking at this data...I can’t class you as fully human either”.

The world felt like it was spinning around her and she pinched her eyes closed in an effort not to pass out. Tony placed a firm hand on her shoulder, “Lex. It doesn’t matter what your blood says...you’re still you. We just wanted you to know that this is the reason you survived what others couldn’t…”

She was nodding as if she was still following what they were saying, but she was very hung up on the ‘alien’ part.

“Are you going to be okay?” Bruce’s voice was full of concern. “Maybe we shouldn’t have told her Tony…”

“No no. I’m glad you told me. Thank you,” she said, making an effort to stand up.

“Just remember this doesn’t change anything,” Tony told her firmly. She nodded, but was having trouble getting her eyes to focus. “I’m serious...this changes nothing kid”.

The pet name made her heart warm. Tony truly had become a father figure to her and he was grateful he was here for her now. She knew she was losing her mind when she suddenly smiled imagining Bruce as her uncle.

“We won’t tell anyone else and leave it up to you to decide who knows,” Bruce told her kindly.

“Thank you. I truly appreciate both of you,” she smiled, though her head was still spinning. “I’m just going to take a walk or something…”

“Just don’t be out too long. It’s getting dark quickly these days,” Tony called after her.

She mumbled some form of agreement and slipped into the staircase, slowly walking down until she reached the fresh air outside. Her heart was pounding in her chest, she kept thinking about the alien blood pumping through her. She knew there had to be a reason she had survived the tests and gained powers, and she wasn’t sure what she expected...but it wasn’t this.

She wandered down the trail through the forest, trying to use nature to calm and steady herself. The babbling stream drew her attention and she walked down to meet it. The more she thought about their findings, the more she felt her anxiety spiraling. She sat on a rock near the stream and closed her eyes, trying to fall into the meditative practice that Bucky had shown her.

Lex was pleased that it was easier for her to find a sense of calm. She was still fighting off intrusive thoughts, but her heart rate had slowed dramatically. She sat there trying to come to terms with what she had learned, for probably longer than she should have. When she opened her eyes again it was already getting dark.

“Shit,” she thought, pulling herself to her feet and dusting herself off. She checked her watch and now realized she would be late for dinner. Suddenly her heart dropped, she had alien blood, did this mean they would look at her differently? Tony had promised it didn’t change anything, but would everyone else feel the same? Would they be afraid of her now?

She took a few more steadying breaths, while reminding herself no one else knew. Maybe she would keep it to herself, she couldn’t deal with the idea that they could turn on her.

Lex heard a twig snap and was immediately in a defense position. It had already gotten so dark she was struggling to see who was up the trail ahead of her.

“It’s just me,” Bucky said, holding his hands up as he approached. He smiled at her, “Please don’t beat me up!”

“Oh...sorry Buck,” she muttered, dropping her fists and struggling to return his smile.

“I just came to see if you were alright...it’s gotten dark and you are about to miss dinner…”

Lex wasn’t sure if it was the fact he had come looking for her, or the pure kind concern in his voice, but she immediately started sobbing.

“Whoa,” Bucky’s voice was soft as he stepped closer to her. “I know you don’t like human contact, but I can’t just see you cry like that,” he laughed a little as he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest.

He was surprisingly comfortable and she allowed herself to relax and just get it out as he held her. She was honestly surprised at how comforting she found him, knowing that their relationship had certainly progressed since they had first met.

Bucky was smoothing her hair soothingly. “What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled into his shirt.

“Lex…” he muttered softly. “You’re clearly keeping something from me”.

She knew they had turned a corner at this point, and if there was anyone she could trust after Tony and Bruce, it was Bucky. She took a deep breath and turned her face up to look at him. “Bruce and Tony found a strange strand of DNA in my blood…” she whispered. She had to take a moment to prepare herself for the fact he might suddenly recoil from her before continuing. “It wasn’t human DNA...I have some kind of alien blood mixed in mine”.

Lex shut her eyes, preparing herself for the worst, but Bucky didn’t let go of her. “Hmm…” he muttered softly. “I can see why you’d be surprised by that, but I guess it makes a lot of sense…”

Her eyes snapped open. “That’s all you have to say about it?”

Bucky chuckled softly. “What? Did you expect me to run from you? Lex...you’re still the same person whether you have different blood or not…”

“Thank god,” she breathed. “I’m freaking out so I kind of expected everyone else to freak out too…”

Bucky laughed and pushed the hair back from her face. The strangely intimate gesture made her shiver. “Take a minute to breathe and let's get you inside. Thank you for trusting me with this. I won’t tell a soul…” he whispered.

She just nodded as she stepped away from him, wiping away the tears. “Thank you Bucky…”

He grinned at her. “You’ve become a big softie since you’ve been here,” he teased.

She laughed. “You are all rubbing off on me”.

They walked back towards the compound, Bucky shooting her a couple glances as they went with a thoughtful smile on his face. Lex was starting to feel nervous about how she could explain her absence to the rest of the team.

Bucky seemed to sense her apprehension as he paused by the door. “If you want I’ll just tell them you’re not feeling well and sneak you some food to your room?”

Lex laughed. “That’s sweet of you, but I think I’m just going to have to face it...they’re going to know something’s up…so I might as well get it over with…”

He nodded. “You can trust them”.

“I know”.

They walked into the crowded kitchen and Lex smiled to see two seats had been saved for them. Unsurprisingly all eyes were on her as she entered, though Tony seemed to be trying to purposefully force the conversation to continue as if trying to cover for her.

“Hey Lex are you alright?” Steve asked, and the room fell completely silent.

Lex just nodded. “It turns out there’s some unexplained alien DNA in my blood,” she tried to keep her voice steady. “I’ve just been trying to process that…”

Everyone went wide eyed as they stared at her. A moment passed, and then another, and Lex held her breath.

“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any cooler,” Sam laughed. “Now sit down before your food gets cold”.

She exhaled slowly as the conversation returned around her, a few people asking if she was okay because they knew finding out something like that could rattle a person. She forced herself not to cry as she took a seat, so thankful for their easy acceptance.

It was bizarre how normal everything felt, just like that. Tony was teasing Steve about something he didn’t understand. Natasha and Sam were bantering back and forth about which was the superior Thai food restaurant nearby. Vision was sitting there watching everyone eat, since he didn’t eat himself. That had always seemed weird to Lex at first, but now it was just part of the normal routine.

The only one still paying her any attention was Loki from the other end of the long table. He kept his gaze on her, once again seeming like he was trying to get a read on her. She raised an eyebrow at him as if questioning why he was looking at her, but yet he didn’t look away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh you can't rattle the Avengers that easily....alien or not! <3


	13. Chapter 13

Lex was wide awake in the middle of the night yet again. This time she didn’t even bother trying to force herself to go back to sleep and instead just got dressed and ready for the day. She figured she would walk around the compound for a while, maybe go to the library to read, or maybe try and figure out how to turn on the massive tv in the screening room. 

As she made her way down the hall she noticed Bucky’s bedroom door was wide open. Knowing that was strange she quietly walked up to the doorway and knocked on the door frame. “Buck?” she whispered, with no reply.

She pushed open the door and tried to peer inside. His bedsheets were haphazardly thrown off the bed, but other than that there was no sign anyone had been in there. He clearly wasn’t in there now so she continued down the hallway, her brow furrowed with concern.

It didn’t take long to find him. His shadowy figure was out on the balcony in the cool darkness. She could tell by the way he was slouched over he was upset about something. She quickly made her way to the kitchen and put on a pot of tea. 

While she waited for it to boil she wondered what he could be doing up in the middle of the night. Though she supposed she was doing the same thing. Her first thought was that he had another nightmare that was keeping him awake. It wouldn’t be a stretch that he was suffering from PTSD and she knew it could get the better of him sometimes.

She grabbed two mugs of tea and a blanket before she quietly made her way back to the balcony. She quietly pushed open the door so as not to startle him, but he didn’t even flinch.

“Hey,” she murmured softly, waiting for him to address her. He glanced back over his shoulder, but his expression was completely hollow. “I brought you some tea. Do you want to talk about it?”

He attempted a smile, but it looked pained as he accepted the beverage. “No. I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled.

She just nodded and sat cross legged on the floor a fair distance away from him, leaning back against the cool stone of the building and tucking the blanket around her waist.

Bucky’s sad blue eyes looked at her curiously. “What are you doing?”

Lex smiled gently. “You don’t have to talk to me about it...but I’m certainly not leaving you out here alone…”

He sighed, but it sounded pleased. “Thanks Lex,” he took a sip of his tea and sat down as well.

They were both silent for a while. The wind blew gently through her hair as she sipped at her tea and watched him. Bucky wasn’t doing much, but sitting there with his weird haunted expression, though occasionally his eyes would rise to meet her as if checking that she was still there. 

“Are you not freezing?” he asked quietly.

They hadn’t said anything in so long she almost didn’t hear him. “I brought a blanket,” she reminded him simply.

“You should go back to bed. It’s the middle of the night…”

“I’m staying as long as you need,” she said with a soft smile. “You’ve been there for me, now let me be there for you…”

Bucky nodded as if he knew better than to argue. “Well I appreciate your company, darling,” he said under his breath.

Instant heat ran through her at the word ‘darling’ and she wasn’t convinced she liked what it did to her. The buttery smoothness of his voice as he said something so endearing had made her feel suddenly dizzy. She reminded herself that he was around in the 40s and naturally sometimes spoke like he still was.

She just took a huge sip of tea and tried to avoid eye contact. They sat like that, both just peacefully watching the sky become lighter as night became morning, for hours. As the moments ticked by Bucky was starting to seem more and more like himself. Whatever had him rattled was releasing it’s hold on him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Lex nodded. “I could eat…” 

He stood up and offered her his hand. She took it as he gently pulled her to her feet. “Thanks again for riding that out with me,” he murmured as he let go of her hand and let the way inside. She just nodded and followed him.

Bucky was insistent on making her breakfast, trying to reason that it was the least he could do. She put on a pot of coffee and sat at the table watching him scrambling the eggs. Bucky had seemed like such a pain in the butt when they first met, she was so annoyed to have him as her training partner, but now she had to admit she really respected him and enjoyed spending time with him.

He slid a plate of eggs and slightly burned toast in front of her with a smile on his face. She wasn’t sure cooking was his forte, but he looked pleased with himself. “Thank you. This looks delicious,” she grinned at him.

They were chatting about trivial things when Loki wandered in. He glanced at them both over and silently went to the fridge.

“There’s coffee ready Loki...if you guys drink that sort of thing,” Lex called to him.

Loki looked at her over her shoulder. “We don’t drink it typically on Asgard, but I’ve enjoyed a cup or two on Midgard,” he told her as he poured himself a cup.

Lex scrunched up her face as she chuckled. It was weird how instant they were on calling Earth, Midgard. “Feel free to join us,” she offered.

Bucky shot her a look like he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, but Loki took them up on it and sat with them. “I’m not intruding am I?” he shot Bucky a sly smile.

“Not at all,” Bucky breathed back.

“So how are you settling in?” Lex asked, desperate to break the strange tension between them. 

“It’s fine,” Loki said, his tone bored. “This place has nothing on Asgard, and you all sleep on such soft beds…”

Lex snorted. “Do you sleep in a coffin or something on Asgard?”

Loki looked amused. “Are you suggesting I’m a vampire now?” Lex shrugged. “No, but our beds are certainly firmer…”

Bucky was chewing his food purposefully as he stared at his plate in front of him. “So when are we starting training again?” Lex directed a question at him.

He swallowed his mouthful of food. “Whenever you’re ready I guess. Though I don’t know that I would call one day off enough rest,” he smiled slightly.

Lex chuckled. “I don’t want to give you a big head or anything...but I miss training…”

He laughed slightly. “Lets at least give it the weekend…”

She nodded in agreement. “Do you have abilities Barnes?” Loki asked with curiosity.

Bucky shook his head. “It’s Bucky...and no. We have been practicing hand to hand combat”.

“Interesting,” Loki mused. “Perhaps I would be better suited to assist in teaching you to control your powers Lex?”

“We’re doing just fine,” Bucky said firmly.

Lex sighed, just what they needed. Two more males that felt the need to constantly square off against each other. “Thanks Loki, but Bucky has it under control”. She didn’t fail to notice the way Bucky seemed to swell with pride.

“Suit yourself, but if you ever change your mind,” he ghosted his hand and the coffee mug in front of him became a vase of flowers as if to illustrate his point.

Lex’s eyes widened. “That’s cool,” she admitted.

Bucky’s face soured heavily. “I have been trained by my mother in the mystic arts,” Loki explained simply. “So I have some experience with different gifts…”

“She said we have it under control,” Bucky’s voice was dark and Lex quickly squeezed his hand to reassure him.

Loki seemed increasingly amused as he glanced between them. “You know where to find me,” he said slowly as he stood and walked out of the room.

Lex watched him leave and then touched the flowers he had left behind. They seemed real, though she wasn’t convinced that they were.

“I just don’t trust that guy,” Bucky exhaled heavily.

Lex shrugged. “I think he just likes pushing your buttons. He seems harmless to me”.

Bucky just stared at her. “Just be careful around him. I’m fairly convinced he’s up to something and he sure had taken great interest in you…”

She just rolled her eyes. “He wants to know how I got my powers, but I told him I didn’t want to talk to him about it. That’s why he’s eager to train me, he wants to get it out of me…”

Bucky nodded in agreement, but she could tell he didn’t fully believe her.


	14. Chapter 14

“Atta girl,” Bucky grinned as she dodged his crosshook and threw one back. Her fist connected with his metal arm and she winced. Bucky laughed, “That was a good hit. Too bad I couldn’t feel it”.

She laughed and spared him again. This time she thought she got the better of him and smirked as she kicked at him. He effortlessly caught her leg with his mechanical arm and pushed her back. She stumbled, but regained her footing. “That’s cheating,” she insisted.

“I’d call it using what I have to my advantage,” he told her simply.

Lex rolled her eyes. “Two can play at that game,” she managed to shift quickly on demand. Bucky’s eyes widened, but she had already knocked him back. At the last second he grabbed at the air in front of him, managing to grab a fistful of her shirt, and he pulled her down with him.

She landed hard against his chest and the impact caused her to phase back. She was laughing as she pushed herself up on her hands, laying on top of him, looking down at his cringing face. Suddenly she realized how close they were when she could feel his breath on her face when he laughed, and he was staring up at her with such a soft expression on his face it made her uncomfortable. 

Scrambling quickly to her feet, she got off of him and tried to laugh it off. “You were quick that time Barnes. I thought I had you”.

Bucky was still smiling. “Well...you did, but I had to do something,” he insisted.

“Did you bang your head?” she asked, suddenly worried she had hurt him.

“Lets just say I’m glad the floor is padded,” he teased as he ran his hand through his long hair. “I think we can call it there for today”.

Lex nodded. “When do you think I’ll have completed my training?” she asked.

Bucky wrinkled his forehead. “Are you sick of me already?”

“No!” she assured him, realizing how that had sounded. “I just meant that we can’t possibly train like this every day forever right? I have to graduate at some point…”

“Can’t we?” Bucky muttered under his breath. “No you’re right. Once you have fully mastered shifting and staying invisible even when startled I will recommend to Fury that you get assessed. You’ve gotten really good at shifting, you just have to work on having it last as long as you want to and then coming back”.

Lex nodded in agreement, but saw how sad his expression still looked. “I told you that I look forward to our training sessions, did I not? Don’t look at me like that,” she laughed. “I feel like I just kicked a puppy”.

Bucky let out a genuine laugh that made her heart warm. “Well then don’t be so eager to get rid of me,” he teased. Lex started laughing. “What?” Bucky questioned.

“When we first met I was convinced you and I would never get along. I thought you hated me and now here you are being all mopey about the idea of our training sessions ending”.

She had been trying to make light of it, but the pained expression on Bucky’s face let her know she hit a nerve. “I never hated you,” he said quietly. “I was in a dark place when you arrived. I had just returned from Wakanda and though they were wonderful and helped get the code out of my brain...it was intimidating to be put back in the world and forced to discover who I am now. I’m not the same man I was when Steve and I were young, I’m not the Winter Soldier, I wasn’t sure who I was. That’s why Steve wanted to entrust me with something. He wanted to give me purpose and I’m very grateful for that”.

Lex nodded sympathetically. “So have you decided who you are now? Because I’m fairly certain I know who you are…”

He smiled slowly. “Oh yeah? Let’s hear it then…”

“You’re Bucky Barnes. A capable, strong, and kind man that I’m grateful to have in my life,” she told him firmly. She was growing more confident in expressing her feelings, and the way Bucky’s eyes lit up at her compliments made her understand that she should say these things more often.

Bucky looked like he was at a loss for how to reply. He opened his mouth and then shut it again, but his eyes were wide and looked like they were shimmering. He suddenly pulled her into a tight hug, burying his face in her hair.

“Buck...has no one complimented you before?” she chuckled, once again trying to make light of it as if it was nothing.

She felt the rumble of laughter in his chest. “Not quite like that. That means a lot to me Lex. Thank you…”

“Of course,” she muttered awkwardly as he let her go.

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “For the record I’m glad to have you in my life as well…”

She tried to meet his gaze, but was distracted by her stomach flipping strangely. She smiled, but was unsettled by the butterflies that had somehow erupted in her chest. “I’m going to go check on Tony. He’ll be wondering where I am by now…” she made an excuse and watched as he nodded at her in confusion as she left.

Before she got to the lab she ran into Loki in the hallway. As always his calculating eyes scanned her over as he nodded a hello. “Returning from training?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied, trying to move past him.

Loki stepped forward to block her path. “May I ask how that is going?”

“Well. Thanks for your concern”.

He was smirking, which she was learning was his go to expression. “And you’re still quite sure you are learning all you need to know with the sergeant?”

“His name is Bucky”.

“Oh I’m sorry. Did I upset you?” Loki asked, but she could tell he honestly didn’t care. “Have you ever wondered if there’s more to your abilities than what you’ve encountered so far? I’ve heard you can disappear, but what if you can do more than that?”

“Like what? I think I’d know by now…”

He shrugged. “Not necessarily. You need the right teacher. Someone who understands special abilities,” he told her firmly.

“I don’t understand why you’re so interested in what I can do,” she raised an eyebrow at him.

Loki laughed quietly. “I merely want to see you reach your full potential. Mortals bore me...but you’re different and I can see how we are alike you and I…”

“I fail to see how we are alike at all Loki…”

He returned to smirking at her. “Come for a walk with me and I’ll show you some of the ways I learned how to harness my skills. I’m willing to bet you will learn something…”

“Are you ever going to give up?”

His grin widened as he shook his head. “You might as well give into me now,” he told her simply.

Lex sighed heavily. “Fine. I’m due to help Tony in the lab in like 20 minutes though so we’d better make it quick…”

“Wonderful,” Loki said, though his tone was as bored as ever so she wasn’t even sure why he was doing this.

They walked down the stairs and into the afternoon sun. Loki headed for the forest, with Lex reluctantly following. They kept on walking down the trail, Lex was about to ask him how far he was planning on going, but he stopped suddenly and turned to face her.

“So you’ve seen I can manipulate objects, but I can also do things like this,” and suddenly he split into five versions of himself, all wearing the same cat-like smile. He seemed pleased by her awed reaction and the extra versions of himself faded away. “It’s merely an illusion, but I can change what people see”.

Lex nodded. “I don’t think I’ll be able to pull that off…”

He chuckled. “That’s not what I’m implying. I activate my skills by imagining I can feel the energy around me as well as flowing through me. I just push against it to bend it to my will. I’m curious to see what happens if you try that…”

She sighed heavily. “Fine…” she tried to do as he told her. Stretching her arms out a little to attempt to ‘feel the energy around her’ she suddenly felt a tingling sensation flow through her. In an instant a tree her hand had turned towards vanished.

Loki looked triumphant. “I told you that you needed the right teacher…”

“It looks strange...” she told him in confusion. She could still see the tree, but it was translucent. “How do you see it?”

“I don’t...can you still see it?”

Lex nodded. “I can still see the shape of it…”

“Incredible…” Loki mused. “I wonder if you can use this ability on other people. Try and bring it back”. She did as he asked, but struggled. “Think about it happening in reverse...pull the energy back towards you”. She tried once again and the tree popped back into view.

“Well I’m sorry I doubted you,” Lex grinned at him. She could feel the excitement bubbling in her chest at this new found skill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps dear Loki is only trying to help after all!? <3 How will Bucky feel about that?


	15. Chapter 15

Sam rushed into the lab, waving something around in his hand. “I thought I dropped it when the explosion went off...but I just found it in my gear,” he told them excitedly.

“Found what?” Tony was trying to pinpoint what the object was that he was flailing around in his hand.

He triumphantly presented a USB key to them. “We were trying to copy over some data from the HYDRA base while we were there. To see what they’ve been working on. It’s probably encrypted, but you can likely handle it...right Lex?”

Her eyes were wide as she nodded eagerly. “Lets get it loaded up in the computer…”

Tony grimaced. “There’s likely going to be details on here about what happened to you...are you sure you’re going to be okay to see this?”

Lex just nodded. “Yeah. It is what it is at this point. I want to know what they’ve been plotting so we can stop them from hurting anyone else…”

She copied all the information over to the hard drive, which took a few minutes and then began to decipher it. It took close to an hour for her to code a program that could remove the passcodes on the information and she found it difficult to concentrate with Tony, Bruce, and Sam looking over her shoulder.

“There…” she said finally. “We can leave it for a few hours as it runs through the data and see what we find”.

“Do you think it’s going to work?” Sam asked skeptically as lines of data ran at a rapid speed across the screen.

“Is that doubt I hear fly boy?” she teased. “Cross your fingers, but there’s no point sitting here and watching it. Let’s all go have dinner and we can come back to it later tonight”.

The others agreed and they walked as a group towards the kitchen. Lex took a seat at the table next to Natasha and immediately began helping herself to the large tray of chicken and rice in the center of the table.

“Did you guys find anything on the drive?” Natasha asked curiously.

Lex shook her head. “Not yet, but it’s currently running a code so hopefully in a few hours time we will be able to read it”.

“Lex was incredible,” Sam told her confidently as he sat across from them. “What she did was absolute wizardry”. 

Loki chuckled from a few seats away. “It seems Lex is having a triumphant day. Did you tell them what you did today?”

Her eyes lit up with excitement, she couldn’t believe she had forgotten. “Loki showed me how to feel energy and I managed to make a tree disappear. I could still kind of see it, but he couldn’t. I didn’t know I could make anything besides myself invisible”.

“That’s really good to know,” Steve told her with a smile. “That could come in handy I’m sure!”

Everyone was murmuring with excitement as they praised her for making progress. Well, everyone except Bucky, who was seated on Steve’s other side and was pointedly staring at Loki with a certain murderous expression.

She quickly realized he wouldn’t take the fact Loki taught her something well and she tried to change the subject. “So what do we think is going to be on the drive?”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hoping for some very embarrassing playlists,” Tony muttered sarcastically.

Steve rolled his eyes. “I got a bad feeling in there that they weren’t just experimenting on people…”

“So...animals?” Wanda furrowed her brow.

“No. Like they’re trying to go bigger. They had a machine and I couldn’t really tell what it was...but it didn’t look great…”

Everyone was silent for a moment. “Well this might not have been the best dinner conversation topic and now I regret bringing it up,” Lex said awkwardly trying to laugh it off.

Bucky was absolutely silent for the entirety of dinner. Lex was slightly disappointed as she had been so excited to tell him about her new found ability. She knew it would be a bit of a sore spot that Loki had been the one to help her discover it, but she still hoped he would have been excited for her.

He just sat there with his eyes cast down, picking away at his food as if he didn’t have the slightest care about the conversation happening around him. She knew she’d have to address it later, and wasn’t necessarily looking forward to that conversation. 

In her opinion he was being a little unfair. Sure he was supposed to be the one training her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t take advice from anyone else. It wasn’t as if she had dropped him for Loki, she had only spent 15 minutes with the Asgardian and she didn’t understand why it would be such a big deal.

After dinner Lex was putting her dishes away and didn’t fail to notice Bucky’s quick escape from the room. She had sighed and rolled her eyes, he was taking it worse than she thought.

Loki glided over and was regarding her carefully. “If you have time tomorrow I would be happy to go over what we talked about again”.

Lex smiled. “Thanks Loki, but I’m training with Bucky tomorrow. I’ll try to add it in there”.

The smirk pulled against Loki’s lips. “Does the soldier have property over you or something?” he asked softly.

She knit her brows together. “No. Of course not. I can do whatever I want, but I promised him I’d train with him and I’m good to my word…”

Loki raised his eyebrows. “Oh right. Of course,” he muttered sarcastically. “It couldn’t have to do with his clear jealousy that you should so much as think about receiving advice from another party…”

Lex rolled her eyes. “I’m his first trainee so he’s a little possessive of my training I’ll admit. But, he means well and just wants to make sure he does a good job and that I pass my assessment”.

“Whatever you say,” Loki replied with amusement. “I just believe a varied training approach is the best way to fully develop...but you mortals tend to do things differently I suppose”.

“Why are you so interested in training me?” she asked him directly.

“I have told you before...I am very curious about a mortal that is able to do the things that you can. So far I have only seen witches or those who trained in the mystic arts for years with that ability. I can make myself look like different people, but I can’t fully disappear…”

“So you want to learn from me yourself then?”

“I suppose,” Loki smiled. “I just find you very interesting”.

She shuddered at the way his cool eyes raked over her. She wasn’t sure she liked the sudden gleam in his eye, or her inability to figure out what he was thinking.

“Right. Well I’ve got things to check on so I guess I’ll see you around,” she told him, quickly dismissing herself and heading back to the lab.

She kept picturing the sly look in his eye as if she was the most amusing person around. She tried to forget about it as she walked in to check on the computer. The majority of the information had been decoded and she began scrolling through it.

It was a little disappointing when she realized they didn’t quite get as much information as they had hoped. She knew she had been naïve to expect they got their entire database, but she had expected more than this.

She came across a diagram that looked similar to the machine Steve had described, but she couldn’t figure out what it was or understand the math formulas written next to it.

Fortunately Bruce and Tony joined her a little while later and Bruce was convinced he had seen it before. He was flipping through some kind of textbook trying to make sense of it.

Tony was scanning the screen attempting to do the math in his head. Lex knew he was considered a genius, but if he understood this page at all she would be heavily impressed. 

Bruce inhaled sharply as he moved back to where Lex and Tony stood. He had the book open to a certain page and was gesturing to it in a panic. He was muttering what sounded like nonsense words under his breath as he compared the formula from the page to that on the screen.

“What? Bruce...what is it?” Lex was deeply concerned by the clear panic on his face.

He raked his hand through his hair. “It looks like they’ve been working on connecting with other realms...and...and it looks like they’ve figured it out”. 

“So a portal then?” Tony’s eyes widened and Bruce nodded hastily. 

“What could they possibly be trying to do with that?” Lex asked under her breath.

Tony was shaking his head. “I don’t know...but it can’t be good…”


	16. Chapter 16

The compound was feeling pretty somber after their discovery. Steve had alerted Fury immediately and he was going to get back to them after he figured out a game plan. No matter what they were plotting, they had to be stopped.

Everyone was trying to continue as if it was business as normal, but they were all distracted wondering what they were plotting and what would happen if they were to proceed.

The only one who didn’t seem bothered by the whole thing was Loki. He reminded them that he had opened a portal to another dimension over New York and had done so by harnessing the power of the tesseract. According to him (and backed up by Thor) the tesseract was now safely locked away in Odin’s private vault and no one would be able to access it. Therefore, whatever HYDRA was planning to use to open a hole in time and space..it wasn’t that at least.

This didn’t put anyone else's mind at ease knowing there were other powers at play that they could be after. Steve was determined to somehow figure out what they were planning on using and get there first, but Lex, Tony and Bruce had combed over the data all night and had come up short. Whatever they were looking for wasn’t in the data they had found.

Lex was sitting in the kitchen alone trying to relax with a cup of coffee. Part of her wanted to take it with her back to the lab to work, but she recognized that she needed a break. She was being careful not to chug it down either, and forcing herself to sit and enjoy a moment of calm. It seemed these moments were going to be far and few for the next little while.

Bucky walked in and hesitated for a moment when he saw her sitting there. He then continued to the fridge and opened it, but didn’t seem to be actually looking for anything.

“I just made some coffee if you want some,” she offered and watched him nod stiffly. “Are you giving me the silent treatment? Are we 6 years old?”

Bucky sighed and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Of course not,” he muttered as he walked over and sat across from her.

“Listen. I know you’re upset Loki gave me a few pointers, but it’s not like I went running to him for training. We happened to pass in the hall and he asked to show me something. It took like 5 minutes and I told him you were my trainer when he offered to show me more…”

Bucky sighed again and bit his lip. “I’m not mad at you. I just don’t trust him. I don’t know what he’s planning, but I honestly feel like he’s trying to turn you against me. Like he’s manipulating you…”

“Well first of all he certainly hasn’t turned me against you, or even tried to. Secondly, what could he possibly be manipulating me for?”

“I don’t know Lex,” he ran his hands through his hair. “He’s just interested in your powers and I struggle to believe that he isn’t plotting anything else. Maybe he will use you for his schemes”.

Lex laughed. “And you think I’d just go along with what he wants?”

“He’s charming and handsome. Maybe you wouldn’t know you were helping him,” Bucky shrugged, pointedly looking out the window.

She shook her head. “I don’t see it like that, but as I told everyone else that has demonstrated any concern about Loki...I’ll be careful. If he tries anything I’m not going to go running off and join him because he’s tall, dark, and has a fancy accent,” she teased.

Finally Bucky cracked a smile and she knew they’d be fine. “I thought that was the perfect recipe for women,” he joked in return. 

“And you must be so well versed in women,” Lex smirked. “Went to war, got captured, frozen for 70 years, on the run for a few years, sent to Wakanda for a bit...have you ever even been on a date?”

Bucky widened his eyes in disbelief as if he couldn’t believe she would even insinuate such a fact. “I’ll have you know I had my share of dates before I left for the war. I used to take a girl dancing every weekend…”

“James Barnes the ladies man. I can’t seem to picture you like that…” she studied his content expression and amused blue eyes.

“I told you that I’m not that person anymore,” he reminded her softly.

Lex nodded. “Did you have anyone special? I know Steve had Peggy…” 

Bucky shook his head and then laughed slightly. “Why the sudden interest in my dating history?”

She smirked at him. “I’m just worried for your love life. You’ve got to start putting yourself out there. It might be good for you!”

He was really laughing now. “Yes...every girl wants to be with a semi stable, 100 year old man…”

She laughed with him. “Yeah...maybe don’t bring up that you’re a World War II veteran on the first date.”

He smiled and took a sip of his coffee. “I guess I should ask you if you had anyone special…”

Lex shrugged. “I’ve only felt like I was in love once, and that was a mistake. He used me until he found something better...so now I’m just convinced I don’t know what love is…”

Bucky’s eyes were large and thoughtful. He held his mug up in the air. “Well here’s to both of us figuring that out I guess,” he mumbled softly as she clicked her mug against his with a smile.

“Cheers to that,” she whispered.

Hours ticked by and Lex was still staring at the computer screen as if she was magically going to find more information on that drive. Bruce and Tony were puttering around in the background, but by this point she had completely tuned them out.

Her back was starting to ache from the way she hunched in her chair and her eyes were struggling to focus. She felt a little bit guilty for completely prioritizing this data over the last few days, though it was important. Her training sessions with Bucky had been paused as she wanted to use those hours on this task. She missed it though and was a little worried her skills would regress if she didn’t keep practicing.

She decided it would be a good time to take a break and her stomach growled in agreement. “I’ll be back in a bit,” Lex called to the others as she stood and tried to stretch out the kinks in her back.

“If you’re going to the kitchen I’ll take a cherry danish,” Tony informed her with a smile.

“You got it,” she laughed and walked out into the hallway. On her way to the kitchen she tried to practice phasing. She disappeared and reappeared instantly. “Shit,” she mumbled and tried again. 

This time she managed to stay invisible and smiled when she heard voices in the kitchen. A prank would certainly help ease her stress and she smiled further when she recognized the voices as Bucky and Steve.

Lex slipped quietly into the kitchen. Creeping past the two men towards the fridge. She was thinking about opening and closing the fridge door abruptly to startle them, but then she heard what they were talking about.

“I know you Bucky...I could tell how bothered you were at dinner the other night,” Steve was telling him with a sigh.

Bucky was staring at the table in front of him. “It’s just irritating that he can just waltz in here and try and take over,” he muttered.

“I don’t trust him either, but Lex is a smart girl,” Steve reasoned. “If he’s trying anything she’ll be able to handle it…”

Lex was holding her breath as if a single exhale would alert them to her presence. She prayed she could stay phased and they wouldn’t catch her eavesdropping on them talking about her. She had to admit she found it slightly annoying that Bucky was still on about this when he had seemed over it when they talked. Steve was his best friend though, so it made sense that he wanted to talk it out.

“That’s not what you’re upset about though is it?” Steve said suddenly as he raised his eyebrows at his friend as if he was implying something.

Bucky sighed and put his head in his hands, his elbows propped up on the table. He let out a soft groan as if he was being tormented. “No...no it’s not…” he mumbled.

Steve didn’t say anything, but a wide grin spread across his face. He just sat there staring at his friend as if waiting for him to continue.

“I’m in love with her Steve...I’m so in love with her,” Bucky said under his breath.

Lex felt a shiver run through her at those words. She just stared at him, suddenly unable to breathe. She had just been playfully questioning him about his love life and she never would have suspected he felt this way about her. Her mind was spinning as she tried to grasp what she had heard.

She was too nervous to stay in the room any longer, knowing she could phase back at any time. She rushed back down the hall, trying to move as quickly as possible until she made it to the balcony. She phased back and gulped the fresh air greedily as she continued to process this new found information. Bucky loved her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Ladies and gentlemen...it's the moment you've waited for..."
> 
> ....or at least I'm assuming we were all waiting for a confession from our boy Buck!


	17. Chapter 17

Lex was clutching her stomach as she paced around on the balcony. This was bad. She walked in here not wanting to get too close to anyone, ended up befriending the entire team almost immediately, and now one of them had fallen in love with her. Worse was that she was delighted that he had.

This would be the time HYDRA would find her and do something terrible to Bucky to get back at her. She was certain they would know. She didn’t know how, but the sinking feeling in her stomach was almost unbearable.

At first she wondered if she should just leave, but she finally felt like a valued addition to the team and she didn’t want to abandon them, plus if they wanted to stop HYDRA she wanted to help. She imagined how they would feel if she left and then allowed herself to recognize that she was important to them. It was a good feeling, one that swept through her like euphoria and she didn’t want to lose it, most of all she didn’t want to hurt them.

Her mind immediately was back on Bucky. Everything made so much more sense now. Why he was upset with Loki hanging around her, why he seemed eager to spend time with her whether training or sharing a cup of coffee. Their level of trust had gotten so high that she was able to comfort him simply by sitting next to him if he was having a rough day and if she was being honest he had become a comfort to her as well.

Their personalities seemed to mesh so well and she had been serious when she told him she was grateful to have him in her life. The way his expression softened when he looked at her with those beautiful blue eyes made her heart melt just thinking about it. 

But could she cross this line? What if something happened? How awkward would it be around the compound and would one of them have to leave? Would being together be worth the risk of destroying this comfortable friendship that they had built?

She shook her head, sending her hair into her face when she realized she was getting too ahead of herself. He hadn’t said anything to her, he didn’t even know she knew how he felt. Could she bring it up? Should she? Or should she just wait until he was ready? But then what would she say? Did she even feel the same? She knew that was a ridiculous thought. The way the warmth had surged through her when he confessed his feelings to Steve told her all she needed to know. She had been pushing her thoughts and feelings to the side for a while now, trying to pretend they weren’t valid. Now they all came spilling out to the forefront of her mind and she couldn’t shake them.

“Lex?” Loki poked his head outside as he called to her. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine Loki”.

“No need to be hostile, but you don’t look fine,” he walked over to her curiously.

“I’m fine. Just tired,” she had to hide a smile remembering Bucky using this excuse when he didn’t want to tell her something.

Loki’s calculating gaze was looking her over as if he was trying to process whether or not he could believe her. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “If something is upsetting you...you can always come to me,” he said quietly.

Lex shivered wondering where this sudden tenderness had come from. “Thank you Loki,” she tried to walk past him, but he still had a hold on her.

Loki’s eyes seemed to pierce hers as she stared at him. “I never thought I would pay a compliment like this to a mortal but...I thought you should know that you’re beautiful,” he moved to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

She was completely dumbfounded and frozen in place as his fingers lingered for a moment on her jawline. She didn’t know what to say, but was captivated by him. She blinked hastily to break free from whatever spell she seemed to be under. “I appreciate that Loki, but I must really be going…”

Lex hurried inside, moving quickly toward the lab. She walked in and Tony grinned at her, “I was wondering when you’d be back. I was looking forward to my danish,” then he noticed the look on her face. “Hey kid, you okay?”

“Yeah,” she breathed. “But I forgot your danish I’m sorry. Let me go get you one…”

Tony was staring at her, trying to get a read on her. “It’s okay. I don’t need one…”

She shook her head. “Cherry right?” and she hurried out into the hallway.

She clutched her chest as she walked trying to regain her composure. She didn’t know what her own brain was doing and she didn’t like it. She hated the way a relatively attractive man could do something as simple as fix her hair and it send her into an uncontrollable tailspin. Not to mention Bucky’s earlier confession. For a brief moment she let herself realize how lucky she was to have captured anyone's attention, let alone these two, but then she pushed the thought aside. Loki was handsome and charming, but she truly loved Bucky, she just didn’t know how to tell him.

When she walked into the kitchen she was surprised to see Bucky was still there. “Hey,” she said quickly, going to grab Tony’s danish.

“Hi,” Bucky smiled at her. “I’ve barely seen you all day. Is Tony working you that hard?” he teased.

Lex did her best to smile at him. “Yeah we’ve been busy today,” she told him. “I just came to grab this for Tony actually,” she explained.

Bucky suddenly looked concerned. “Are you okay? You seem kind of out of it”.

She laughed, this was the third person to ask if she was okay in the span of 10 minutes. “Yeah I’m fine. Staring at a computer screen all day makes you a bit glassy eyed,” she explained.

Bucky nodded. “Well I hope you don’t skip dinner…”

“Never,” she grinned at him. “Save me a seat?”

He grinned back at her. “Of course I will. Maybe you and I can take a walk after dinner? You look like you could use one to clear your head”.

She felt her heart somersault at the idea. “I’d like that. Thanks Buck”.

Lex walked back to the lab with a new lightness in her step. She was looking forward to her walk with Bucky, though it made her a little nervous. Half of her wanted to confess her feelings for him the moment they were alone, but the other half wondered if it would be safer to wait it out.

“Ah someone’s in a better mood. You must have had a danish too. I swear there’s nothing they can’t fix,” Tony chuckled as he gratefully accepted the danish she had brought him.

She just laughed and went back to the computer to continue her work. It was frustrating only being able to see half the puzzle and she started to wonder if they should infiltrate another HYDRA compound in order to try and get more information. It wasn’t an idea she thought Fury would be thrilled about, but it may be necessary in order to stop them. She would want to be part of the team that went, knowing she would have the best shot at hacking into their database to get what they needed. Without passing her assessment she knew there was no way Fury would let her go.

When she walked into the kitchen for dinner she felt her heart warm once again when she saw Bucky smiling at her with an open seat next to him. “I told you I wouldn’t miss dinner,” she smiled as she sat down.

Bucky just laughed and passed her the bowl of potatoes. As usual the two of them fell back and observed the others while they ate. If there was one thing she could count on it was Bucky’s comfortable silence.

“You could probably use a night off,” Natasha told her with a smile. “I might try and relax and watch a movie later if you want to join me? I think Steve and Wanda might come too”.

Lex smiled. “Thanks Nat. I told Bucky I’d go for a walk after dinner, but maybe we will meet up with you later?”

Natasha’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh a little moonlit stroll? Or is this a training thing?”

She laughed. “We both just agreed nature would clear our heads,” she insisted.

Steve had been listening and was looking at them both in an amused expression. Bucky shot him a clear look of warning, but Lex pretended she didn’t notice.

The fall breeze was making the evening air cooler. Lex pulled her jacket tighter around her as she stepped outside. Wordlessly the pair walked down the trail to the stream, admiring the way the moon reflected on the moving water. Bucky had his hands shoved in his pockets and a small smile on his face.

Lex was suddenly hyper aware of how close to her he was. She could almost feel the heat from his body radiating off of him, and was surprised at how much she wanted to lean into him. She took a deep breath, prepared to just blurt out her thoughts, but stopped when he turned his head and made eye contact.

“Buck…” she tried, but her voice was barely above a whisper and was lost in the wind.

Bucky turned so he was fully facing her. His eyes were searching hers as he bit his lip. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about...I’m not sure if you’re even going to want to hear this…” he paused. “I don’t want to put anything else on you, but I imagine I’ll be sent on another mission soon and I...I just wanted you to know before I go…”

She was smiling goofily as she watched him stumble over his words in his hurry to explain himself. “Buck…” she said his name a little bit louder.

He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes darting towards the ground. “Lex...I…god I just…”

Lex laughed despite herself at his struggle. She couldn’t help herself and stepped forward to close the gap between them, pushing herself up on her tippy toes to press her lips against his. He was frozen in shock for half a second, before his arms tangled around her waist and pulled her closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did we learn from this chapter?
> 
> 1\. Loki is a hopeless flirt  
> 2\. It's impossible not to love Bucky  
> 3\. Danish's fix everything


	18. Chapter 18

Lex felt like her heart would explode at the way his hands tangled in her hair. She laughed against his mouth, causing him to pull back to examine her face. He looked completely bewildered with a lopsided grin on his face.

“Sorry...that was abrupt…” she told him quickly.

She felt the rumble of a laugh in his chest before she heard it. “And to think I was just going to tell you that your assessment is scheduled for Friday…”

“What?” her eyes widened and she felt her face grow hot as a blush spread across her cheeks.

Bucky just stared at her for a minute, before laughing again to prove he was joking. Lex punched him in the shoulder. “Well technically that is true, but I really wanted to tell you that...” he closed his eyes and sighed. “I don’t know why I can’t say it to you. You’re intimidating”.

“Intimidating?” she laughed.

“Darling, I just love you so much and you deserve to know”.

“And I you,” she whispered before his mouth was on hers again.

They both laughed, just staring at each other, Bucky leaned down to rest his forehead against hers as they looked into each other's eyes. “Part of me thinks this must be a dream because there’s no way Lex Martin just allowed such a cheesy moment to happen”.

Lex punched him in the shoulder and he winced. “There, see...not a dream,” she teased. “Now not a word about that to anyone…”

“You getting all starry eyed over me or our relationship?” Bucky asked quietly. He sounded like he was trying to tease her in response, but was secretly worried she was embarrassed by this.

“Relationship?” she questioned, raising her eyebrow.

Bucky laughed quietly and bit his lip. “I just told you I loved you. Did you think I meant as a friend?”

Her eyes darted towards the floor, it felt like the blood had drained suddenly from her face.

Bucky gently hooked his finger under her chin and tilted her head back up. “What is it?”

“This is usually where things go wrong for me,” she admitted. “I’m too happy for this to last. I’m sure those HYDRA agents will be after me again and be able to use you to get to me. I don’t want anything to happen to you, especially if it’s my fault”.

Bucky smiled and trailed his fingers down the side of her face, coming to rest on her shoulders. “Sweetheart. Nothing is going to happen. I swear to you that you’re not cursed”.

She was shaking her head, her hair failing in her eyes. “It’s happened every time so far. Anytime I got close to anyone something happened and...this one would hurt the most”.

He rubbed her arm. “Lex, please don’t give up on this before it’s even begun…” he whispered, his blue eyes wide and sad.

Lex groaned. “I can’t deal with those puppy dog eyes,”

Bucky furrowed his brow and laughed. “What? Me?” he joked, fluttering his eyelashes at her. “I’m serious though Lex. You’ve told me your concerns and I am aware of what I’m potentially getting into.”

She just nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. “I don’t think I’ll ever have the words to express how grateful I am to you,” she mumbled against him. 

“Just that is good enough for me,” he was rubbing her back in soothing circles. He felt her shiver, “We should get back inside”. 

“Is it wrong that I just want to stay out here?” she trailed her fingers up and down his back.

Bucky sighed a contented sigh. “You’re already super cold and what kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you freeze to death or catch a cold?” Lex laughed. “What?”

“It sounds weird to hear you call yourself my boyfriend…”

“And what would you prefer I called myself?” he chuckled.

She tilted her face up to kiss his jaw. “Boyfriend sounds great”.

They walked back towards the compound, Lex bumping her hip against his playfully to try and make him laugh. His genuine laughter always felt like a breath of fresh air and she was eager to hear it.

His eyes crinkled when he chuckled and glanced over at her. She never knew that a simple glance could make her feel so special, like she was the only woman in the world. She had to resist clutching her chest as her heart swelled with happiness.

They wandered into the screening room to find the others. Unsurprisingly all eyes were on them as they shuffled in and took a seat next to each other. Steve was looking at Bucky with raised eyebrows, and Bucky just nodded quickly.

“Yes!” Steve exclaimed, clapping his friend on the back from the seat behind him.

Natasha turned to narrow her eyes at the two of them. “Finally,” she muttered. “I was getting tired of the ‘will they won’t they’,” she teased.

Wanda’s eyes were wide as she looked between the two of them. “You two?”

Lex just rolled her eyes with a slight laugh. “Shouldn’t you all be paying attention to the movie?” they all just kept staring at them with small smiles on their faces. “Is this what you’re waiting for?” she asked, leaning overtop of Bucky to kiss him gently. There were a few ‘ow ow’s’ courtesy of Natasha, and Steve was actually clapping. Bucky was blushing, but Lex shot them a look, “Now pay attention to the movie”.

Everyone settled in, Bucky draping his arm around her shoulders and she snuggled into him. Lex couldn’t concentrate on the movie, she probably couldn’t even tell you what movie they were supposed to be watching. She just kept staring at Bucky’s profile, his face relaxed as his eyes glassed over while he stared at the screen. She was certain she had never seen him look this happy, and to think she was part of the reason was making her heart do all kinds of things.

Occasionally he would catch her looking and his eyes would crinkle as he smiled at her, his eyes lingering on her face. She wanted to kiss him, but knew having the others around would draw too much attention.

The only reason Lex knew the movie had ended was because Bucky was nudging her awake. Her eyes slowly opened in confusion to see his face angled to smile at her. She lifted her head from his shoulder where she had apparently rested it and laughed quietly.

“So I take it you loved the movie,” he rubbed her arm with a smirk on his face.

Lex yawned. “I haven’t been sleeping well...but clearly I loved the company,” she smiled at him.

He laughed again. “Well...let's get you to bed then. You clearly need some sleep”.

Lex agreed begrudgingly and let him pull her gently to her feet. His fingers immediately intertwined with her own and he gave her hand a little squeeze. To think merely hours ago they were both secretly hiding these feelings from each other and now that they had let them out, couldn’t seem to get enough of each other. 

Bucky was ever the gentleman and walked her all the way back to her room. She leaned back against the door, only to have him close the gap and lean his body against hers as he kissed her. 

Lex had been in relationships before, but had never been kissed quite like this. He was holding her face in his hands, the cool metal of his mechanical arm felt soothing against her skin. When he pulled away she almost groaned in protest, but forgot all about it when she began to study the expression on his face. His lips were still slightly parted, his eyes were so bright and blue and searching hers. He smiled slightly and rubbed a thumb over her cheekbone as he seemed to be admiring her. She didn’t know someone could make her feel so adored and so beautiful so easily, but the feeling was causing tears to prickle against her eyes.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world…” he whispered as he let her go.

She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face in his chest. She squeezed him tightly against her, feeling like her heart was going to explode. 

“Lex?” he questioned, sounding mildly concerned.

She chuckled, but the sound was muffled against his chest. “If you keep being this gosh darn romantic you may cause me to spontaneously combust,” she moaned.

Bucky let out a laugh that echoed down the hallway and buried his face in her hair. “Well we wouldn’t want that would we? Though...I feel like it’s going to be hard for me to stop,” he tilted her chin to get her to look at him and knit his brows together. “Is that what you want?” He kissed the side of her mouth. “For me to stop?” and then he kissed the other.

Lex groaned, which caused him to smirk at her. “Lord no,” she laughed as he placed a kiss on her throat as she tilted her head back. “I never want you to stop…”

“Good,” he breathed, his mouth ghosting over hers. “Now get some sleep darling and I’ll see you for some training in the morning…”

Bucky pulled back from her mouth, having not actually kissed it and she startled herself when she almost growled in protest and pulled him back down to her. He laughed and kissed her back before pulling away once more. He shot her one last easygoing smile and turned to go down the hall to his own room. She watched him until he was completely out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh some fluff for your Wednesday! ❤️


	19. Chapter 19

“You’re late,” Bucky smirked at her as she walked into the training room.

Taya rolled her eyes, but started laughing as she looked up at the clock above the door. “Really?”

“What? Don’t think I’m going to let up on you now just because we’re in a relationship. I’ve loved you for a while now and that hasn’t stopped me from being subjective,” he teased. “Plus your assessment is tomorrow which is going to be a huge deal for both of us…”

She nodded. “I know I know...but how long exactly have you loved me Barnes?” she smirked.

“Oh shush,” he threw her a set of hand wraps. “Let's start from the top”.

The motions of their defensive drills felt fluid finally and Bucky seemed relatively impressed by her speed and strength. They moved on to some offensive drills, but eventually it was time to practice using her skills.

Bucky had her use it in practice and rushed at her to act like he was going to attack her. She would phase and try and surprise him, by knocking him back, but was struggling a little to sneak up on him. Bucky had learned her patterns over their training session and kept lunging out to grab at her, despite the fact he couldn’t see her.

She started phasing and unphasing rapidly as she darted around him to give off the illusion that she was teleporting around him. She ducked the opposite way suddenly, finally catching him off guard and knocking him flat on his back.

Lex smirked at him as she pinned him beneath her body weight on the mats. Her hair hung down in his face as he smiled up at her.

“Okay...you got me good,” he admitted, his expression soft as he looked at her.

She leaned down to kiss him gently. “Finally…” she laughed as she got off of him.

Bucky remained laying on the ground, but he started to laugh. “I was quite comfortable in that position...if your assessment wasn’t tomorrow and I wasn’t such a great trainer I would have stayed there”.

Lex threw her head back to laugh. “Don’t get distracted Barnes,” she teased him.

He got up and moved over to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and pulling her against his chest. “It’s very hard not to be distracted by you,” he placed a simple kiss on her shoulder, but it sent chills through her and she thought she may fall over.

Bucky suddenly tightened his hold on her and effortlessly flipped her back onto the mats, pinning her arms above her head. She had knocked her head back against the mats when she fell and was seeing stars as she blinked up at him. “Umm...ow…” she joked.

“Oh...were you distracted?” he teased as he helped her to her feet.

She punched his shoulder and winced as her fist connected with his mechanical arm. “Ow I always forget,” she sighed, rubbing her knuckles.

“You really forget?” he laughed, clenching and unclenching his metal fist. 

“Yes,” she laughed. “Do you really think I would punch it if I remembered?”

“That’s a good point,” he chuckled, rubbing his hand over her knuckles to make sure she was alright. He kissed the back of her hand. “On the bright side I think you’re ready. Do you want to try that thing Loki showed you? Just in case Fury brings it up?”

Lex’s head was still spinning from the tenderness Bucky displayed, but she nodded. “Yeah, I guess I’d better…” she smiled at him.

She closed her eyes and reached her hands out towards one of the meditation pillows. She imagined energy flowing through her and when she opened her eyes all the pillows were translucent like the tree had been.

“Wow,” Bucky said softly. “That is impressive…”

“I’m not sure if I can do it on other people. So far I’ve only tried objects,” she told him. It took her a few tries to bring the pillows back.

“Try it on me,” Bucky suggested.

Lex shook her head. “No way. What if I screw it up or something?”

“What’s the worst that can happen?”

She looked at him in disbelief. “You could be stuck invisible forever?”

He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I trust you. Give it a try…”

Lex sighed heavily and nodded with an eye roll. “If something goes wrong just remember you asked for this…” Bucky just chuckled softly at her. She closed her eyes again and tried to concentrate. It was nerve wracking not knowing how this would go, so she repeated a few meditation mantras to settle herself.

She could feel the energy flowing through her and opened her eyes slightly to see it wasn’t working. So she pushed a little harder, willing her power to extend to him. Slowly Bucky began to vanish, she watched his eyes widen as he looked down at himself only to see he wasn’t there. She could still make out where he was, but he clearly couldn’t see himself at all. She laughed and went to say something, but suddenly felt exhausted and before she knew what was happening her world went black.

“Lex? Lex?”

She could hear someone calling for her and struggled to open her eyes. Reluctantly her eyelids obeyed her, but it took her a minute to get her bearings. She found herself on the couch in the common room with a bunch of the team all around her. Bucky was sitting right next to her, leaning over to look at her, concern written all over his face. Next to him were Steve and Natasha, and Tony and Bruce were at the other side of the couch.

“W-what happened?”

“You passed out,” Tony told her simply. “Barnes came running in here in a panic from training…”

“You’re not invisible…” she realized when she looked at Bucky.

He shook his head. “The second you passed out I came back. I’m so sorry I asked you to do that. I pushed you too far…”

She smiled. “I was going to try it eventually so it’s better we learned here where I’m safe,” she pointed out. “I don’t have the strength for that yet apparently”.

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that again Lex,” Steve told her gently. “It’s never a good idea to over exert yourself that much…”

“She just needs more practice,” Loki told them coolly. Lex wasn’t even sure when he arrived. “I had my share of collapses while I was practicing mystic arts as well…”

Bucky turned to him. “I don’t know if I would call this the mystic arts...and I’m not going to let her hurt herself,” he said firmly.

Loki’s eyebrows raised. “Ever the guard dog, Barnes”.

Bucky looked like he was going to snap back at him, but Lex reached up to cup his cheek in her hand and it stopped him. “It’s fine. I’m fine,” she insisted and then made a move to sit up. Everyone tried to help her at once and she laughed. “Guys...I’m fine. I’m just tired…”

“Party. Tomorrow,” Tony said suddenly.

“Excuse me?” Lex laughed.

“To celebrate you passing your assessment,” he told her simply.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I haven’t passed it yet…”

“You will though,” Bucky told her confidently as he kissed her forehead.

Tony and Bruce exchanged a glance. “Oh. This is a thing,” Tony shrugged. “About time I’d say”.

Lex laughed. “Oh right. You don’t know...yeah we’re together,” she informed them. “Just as of last night though so it’s not a big secret”.

She suddenly made eye contact with Loki, who was still standing nearby listening. He didn’t necessarily look pleased with this information, but he seemed mostly indifferent. 

“Well Barnes it looks like you have a date to my party then,” Tony told them both with a smile. “The rest of you better figure something out,” he teased.

“A party Tony? Now?” Steve questioned.

“We all need a night off to shut our brains down,” Tony rolled his eyes. “And are you going to tell Lex here she doesn’t deserve a party?”

“That’s not what I-”

“He’s joking Steve. It’s fine,” Lex assured him, seeing as Steve completely missed the joke. “I’ve heard stories of the infamous Stark parties. I can only imagine what it will be like to attend one”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It just wouldn't be right without a Stark party haha
> 
> Also, Tony's reaction to finding out they're together kills me every time. I don't know why, I just really imagine that's how it would go.


	20. Chapter 20

Lex had barely slept. She kept thinking about her assessment and how desperately she needed to pass. Passing meant being approved for missions first of all, which was all she wanted. Plus, Tony was planning on throwing her a party and how terrible would it feel if she didn’t make the cut. Then there was Bucky of course, who had walked her down to the training room and was diligently waiting outside the door.

Seeing Fury standing in front of her with a clipboard was enough to set her on edge. He asked her to demonstrate a series of drills on a practice dummy and she was happy to comply. These felt like second nature at this point and when she was finished she tried to get a read on him to determine how she had done.

Unsurprisingly, he was impossible to read and just kept scribbling on his notepad. “Barnes has told me that you’ve managed to get control of your powers?” he asked and Lex nodded. “You can phase in and out on command now?” Lex nodded again. “Please demonstrate”.

Lex took a deep breath and felt herself phase. Fury’s eyebrow shot up a little, proving to her he was at least mildly impressed. “Let me know when you want me to come back,” she said, watching his eyebrow raise a little higher when he couldn’t tell where she was.

“Proceed,” he nodded to her and she phased back instantly. “I’ll admit that’s very impressive,” he told her. “Is there anything else you’d like to show me?”

Lex’s heart raced with excitement that she had managed to impress him. She nodded, “And I can do this”. She managed to make the training dummy disappear.

Fury nodded. “And you can bring that back no problem?” Lex waved her hand and brought it back. “Does it work on people?”

She cringed, hoping he wouldn’t have asked that. “I’ve only tried it once...and it worked...but it was a little too much for me and I passed out,” she explained. She watched him write that down and her heart beat a little faster. “It wouldn’t affect my ability to do my job though. I have mastered everything else and I’m ready”.

Fury regarded her carefully, his face stern. Lex immediately wondered if she had overstepped and felt her heart sink thinking he may fail her. “I know the team has been very impressed with you…” he paused and she waited for the ‘but’ she assumed was coming. “And I am as well…” finally a smile graced his face. “I am happy to report that I will be passing you and recommending you for field work”.

“Thank you!” she replied happily, her heart soaring. “When do I start?”

He laughed. “I don’t have an exact date for your first...well should be first,” he wrinkled his brow at her, making a point about the time she snuck out. “But I would imagine it will be soon. I’ll send in for a proper uniform for you”.

She just nodded gratefully. “Thank you”.

“You did well,” he told her again and swiftly excited the training room.

Two breaths later and Bucky was hesitantly pushing open the door, his eyebrow raised in questioning. “He didn’t say…” he started but then he saw the look on her face and strode over to her. “I knew it,” Bucky grabbed her in his arms and squeezed her tight. “I knew you could do it”.

Lex exhaled a sigh of relief. “I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for everything Bucky”.

He pulled back and kissed her quickly. “It was my pleasure,” he grinned at her. “I’m just so proud of you!”

“C’mon,” she tugged his hand towards the door. “I want to go tell the others”.

Bucky just nodded and the pair walked hand and hand to the common area. Her heart warmed when she walked in to find the entire team milling about as if they were waiting to hear her results as much as she had been. All eyes were on her and all conversation stopped.

A wide smile broke across her face. “I did it!”

Soon everyone surrounded her, congratulating her and slapping her on the back. She was so wrapped up in their support and attention it almost overwhelmed her. Natasha had been right about this group of people feeling like a family. She had to blink back tears knowing that this was the best family she could ever ask for and she actually realized how loved and supported she was here.

“Thank you. Thank you,” she just kept repeating to anyone who spoke to her.

“See. I knew a party was in order,” Tony hugged her, sounding proud.

Lex laughed. “I’m excited about it now that I can relax a little. I feel like I need a nap if I’m going to be up for a party,” she chuckled gently.

Tony snorted. “Yes. Rest up little lady...these parties tend to get wild”.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Not that wild…”

“You just say that because you’re always sober,” Tony teased.

“Cool it you two,” Lex laughed at them. “I’ll see you all later. Thanks again”.

Bucky followed her into the hallway. “Are you really going to take a nap?”

She nodded. “Honestly I didn’t sleep at all last night and the exhaustion just hit me”. Bucky just nodded. “Why do you look so sad? Afraid to be apart from me?” she teased. Bucky didn’t say anything so she squeezed his hand. “Hopefully this isn’t a super weird question but...would you like to join me?”

The way his eyes lit up told her everything she needed to know. “Uhh...if you’re comfortable with that,” he muttered awkwardly.

Lex just laughed and led him down the hall to her room. She slipped into the bathroom and changed into an oversized t-shirt that she liked to sleep in. When she returned to the room she watched Bucky’s eyes almost fall out of his head at the sight of her bare legs.

“Calm down Barnes,” she teased, watching as he climbed under the blankets of her bed and trying to ignore the funny things it did to her stomach.

She walked over and slid into the bed next to him, his arms immediately wrapping around her and pulling her into him. She put her head on his chest and listened to the gentle sound of his heart beat. Bucky placed a kiss on her forehead and let out a contented sigh.

Lex was convinced she had never been this comfortable in her life, and the second she thought it the pit in her stomach made itself known once again. She took a breath and reminded herself she was fine, she was safe here, nothing was going to happen. But she couldn’t seem to allow herself to believe it.

“You okay?” Bucky asked her gently as if he could sense her nerves.

She sighed. “Yeah...I just really felt how tired I am when I got comfortable,” she told him, her eyelids already feeling heavy.

“Get some rest my darling,” he whispered, his mouth brushing against her hair.

Lex wasn’t sure how long she had slept, but when her eyes fluttered open Bucky was laying in the same position, her head still resting comfortably on his chest. His blue eyes looked tired, but happy as he smiled softly as she awoke.

“Feeling better?”

Lex nodded. “Did you sleep?”

Bucky shook his head. “No,” he kissed her. “But this was nice”.

“I could certainly get used to this,” she admitted as she snuggled in closer to him for a minute. She felt his hand slip under the hem of her shirt and glide across the bare skin of her back and hip. The feeling caused her to shiver. “I guess we should get ready for the party,” she told him glancing over at the clock on her nightstand.

He rolled so he was leaning his body over hers as he looked her in the eye. “Or we could skip the party and just stay like this,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss her deeply.

Lex groaned against his mouth causing him to laugh. “If I wasn’t convinced Tony would come knock down the door if I failed to show up, I would take you up on that”.

Bucky pushed the hair back from her face. “You make an excellent point,” he admitted, rolling off of her and staring up at the ceiling.

She squeezed his shoulder. “I’m excited to see these dance skills you apparently have”.

“Sorry?” he turned to look at her with an eyebrow raised.

Lex laughed. “You told me yourself that you took girls out dancing every weekend. Now I’m the lucky girl that gets a turn…”

Bucky propped himself up on his arm to look at her, his brow knit together. “Darling, it’s not that you get a turn. Before, that was all a bit of fun. I was younger and I’m not the same man. I love you and I’m delighted I’m the lucky guy who gets to bring you to this party…”

Lex bit her lip, rolling back into the pillows with a laugh. “Bucky…” she moaned. “I was just joking around. I’m not jealous of the girls in your past, but you’re killing me when you talk like that”.

He laughed and sat up. “Well good then,” he kissed her once more. “I guess I will see you at the party”.

She watched him leave smiling to herself and then pulled herself out of bed in an attempt to find something to wear. When she opened her closet to look at her pitiful options for clothing she found a dress hanging there that wasn’t there before. It had a tag on it she pulled off to read.

‘Hey Lex. I thought you would look great in this if you want to borrow it. See you at the party. Xoxo Nat’.


	21. Chapter 21

Lex hadn’t felt this good about herself in a long time. She was proud of herself for passing the assessment and becoming part of the team. She was proud of herself for opening up to people and allowing Bucky to become a part of her life. Plus, Natasha had excellent taste and she was really feeling herself in this dress.

The dress in question was a deep midnight blue and flowed outwards at her hips, making her feel like a complete princess. She was rotating her hips back and forth in the mirror, watching the way the material twirled around her.

She had curled her long hair, putting half of it up and letting the rest fall down her back in soft waves. There was a beautiful silver hairpin tucked into the dress that she had fashioned in her hair. She made a face at herself in the mirror, unable to resist, and then figured it would be time to head to the party.

As she walked down the hall the music grew louder. She could see lights changing colour in the common room and smiled to herself. When was the last time she had been to a party?

The first person she saw was Natasha, who looked amazing in a black dress that hugged her hips and had a slit up the side. Natasha grinned at her as she approached, “I knew that dress would look fantastic on you”.

Lex twirled the material happily. “Thank you so much. This was a lovely surprise”.

Natasha nodded. “Of course. Bucky is going to-” she stopped and laughed, nodding over Lex’s shoulder. 

Bucky had walked in wearing a dark navy suit and had been scanning the room for her. The moment his eyes fell on her they widened and a smile broke across his face. “You look amazing,” he kissed her cheek as he reached her.

“Thank you,” she actually blushed at his reaction. “You look pretty darn good yourself…”

He slid his hand over the small of her back, not taking his eyes off of her. He leaned down to kiss her cheek, hovering there a moment to whisper, “How did I get so lucky?”

Lex was sure her face was the colour of Natasha’s hair, but tried to brush it off with an awkward laugh. Natasha just rolled her eyes with a smile as if the sight of them being romantic made her sick to her stomach. It made Lex laugh as well knowing she would have reacted the same if it were anyone else.

“There’s the woman of the hour!” Tony arrived, looking dapper in his black suit. “Looking stunning as always! Enjoying the party?”

Lex laughed. “I just got here, but yes...thanks Tony!”

“I see you don’t have a drink. I would recommend you try the punch,” he grinned at her. “Oh...have I introduced you to Pepper?” a tall thin woman with strawberry blonde hair wandered over.

“Pepper! Tony has told me so much about you. Nice to officially meet you,” Lex shook her hand.

“Yes, I’ve heard a lot about you as well. I guess I should officially welcome you. Sorry it took us so long to meet...i’ve been away on business,” Pepper told her with a smile.

Lex was suddenly introduced to so many people it was overwhelming. It felt like her first day all over again as more and more people arrived. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting when Tony said he was throwing a party, she supposed she assumed it would only be the people that were currently living here that came, but how wrong she was.

Bucky stuck next to her, silent like her shadow, but he snuck off while she was chatting with Scott and Wanda and returned with a drink he nudged into her hand.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him, excusing herself from the conversation.

“You look like you needed it,” he teased, gently tucking his arm back around her. “I know these parties are a little overwhelming”.

“This isn’t your first Stark party?”

Bucky shook his head. “I’ve been to one before, it was right when I returned from Wakanda and wasn’t exactly in a party kind of mood. I just kept to myself and went to bed early,” he chuckled.

“Aww,” Lex cupped his cheek. “That makes me so sad for you”.

He just smiled at her. “I’ll make up for it tonight. I promise,” he took a sip of his drink.

Lex pulled his hand towards the almost completely empty dancefloor. Bucky raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m ready to see your moves Barnes,” she grinned at him.

Bucky set their drinks down and allowed her to pull him onto the floor. His expression was soft as he held her in his arms and began to guide her around the dancefloor. “I’m not as rusty as I thought,” he breathed as he pulled her a little closer.

She turned her face up to look at him, feeling completely flustered by this man, which was becoming a common occurrence. He leaned in to push his forehead against hers with a gentle smile. They stayed like that for the duration of the song, just gazing at each other as if they couldn’t believe the other was real.

For Lex, she was struggling to believe she deserved a love like this. She had been told she was worthless more times than she could count, and had started to believe it. Joining the team had at least given her a sense of purpose, but Bucky made her feel special - perhaps too special - and she knew she wasn’t special at all. 

Suddenly she was thinking about the alien blood she had been injected with and she started to feel faint. Bucky had let her go as they were leaving the dance floor, and she felt like she couldn’t stand on her own two legs.

“Are you okay?” Bucky checked in with her.

She tried to smile, but was sure she wasn’t very convincing. “Yeah. That drink must have gone straight to my head,” she lied. “I might just need some fresh air…”

Bucky nodded, taking her hand and walking with her into the hallway. “Balcony or deck?” he asked with a smile.

“Deck,” she answered, smiling as his fingers intertwined with hers. They walked down the steps and into the cool night air. She shivered slightly and rubbed her arm.

Bucky glanced over at her. “Would you like my jacket,” he was already taking it off.

“No no,” she insisted. “I’m really fine”. Lex sat on the steps, looking out at the forest.

“I’m going to get you a sweater,” Bucky told her simply. “I’ll be right back…”

“Bucky I’m fine,” she laughed, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer and slipped inside.

Lex took a deep breath and closed her eyes, leaning back against the stair post. She kept forcefully pushing back the intrusive negative thought and tried to relax. Instead she replaced the negative with thoughts of gratefulness and eventually she started to feel better.

When she opened her eyes she saw a tall man, dressed in black near the tree line. “Loki?” she asked out loud. He was too short to be Loki, maybe he was a party guest?

He approached her rapidly, and once he reached the light from the compound she saw the gun in his hands. Her heartbeat skyrocket as she scrambled to her feet to get inside. She phased and watched the man’s expression darken.

“I know you’re still there and if you don’t come with me your little boyfriend won’t see tomorrow,” he told her firmly.

Lex paused, knowing he could be bluffing. She thought of Bucky happily running inside to retrieve a sweater, the way he held her when they danced. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her by a long shot and she wasn’t prepared to risk it.

“Swear you will leave everyone else alone?” she asked quietly.

The man laughed. “It’s only you we need…”

She trembled as she unphased. “HYDRA I presume?”

“You’re not in a position to be asking questions,” he nodded at the gun as if she had forgotten about it. He grabbed her by the arm, forcefully yanking her into the field towards the forest.

While the man had his head turned, she quickly pulled out the hairpin Natasha had lent her and dropped it in the grass. Maybe it would be enough of a sign that she hadn’t just run out on them.

Lex was able to look back at the building to see the light streaming out from the party upstairs. She felt tears trickle down her face as it slowly shrank from view. “I’m sorry…” she whispered, knowing this would break Bucky’s heart.

The man threw her in the back of a waiting car, tying her arms behind her back and putting a bag over her head. She knew there was no point in fighting it, she only cared about protecting Bucky and the others.

She felt the car lurch as it sped away and she wondered if the others would look for her. Or would they assume she had run off, as that had been her track record. The tears didn’t stop as she kept imagining Bucky’s reaction to coming back outside to find she had gone.

It was surreal to know she was in danger and not even be slightly concerned for herself. Lex used to live in fear, constantly concerned about her life. But now she only worried about these people having eyes on her adopted family. If they didn’t know they were being watched, then they would be in danger as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happiness is always short lived around these parts 🙈😬


	22. Chapter 22

By the time the car pulled to a stop, Lex had stopped crying. Now she was just angry. She had spent so long worrying something like this would happen, but now she was furious that it had. Why couldn’t she just have a minute to be happy, hadn’t she been through enough?

She was grabbed and dragged out of the car, stumbling as she tried to catch her footing. She kept thinking about shifting, but they had such a tight hold on her that there was no use, plus she kept thinking about his threat about Bucky.

“Welcome back,” a cool voice greeted her when the man who had a hold on her finally stopped shoving her forward.

Lex didn’t need to see to know who that voice belonged to. She didn’t know a lot about him, only that his first name was Galen and everyone was afraid of him. Sure enough when they pulled the bag from her head she came face to face with the man she hoped she would never have to see again.

He was tall and thin with wispy grey hair and a grey beard. His eyes were dark, so dark it was like he didn’t have iris’. He was grinning at her and it made her blood boil so quickly she wished she could punch him.

Galen had been the one to experiment on her. Well, he never did anything personally, he had his henchmen for that, but nevertheless he was responsible for everything that happened to her. She could blame him for putting her up against the other test subjects and forcing her to kill them if he deemed them too weak. He was responsible for keeping her locked in a tiny cell without food or water for days, then complaining when she was weak during the next test. Most of all he was responsible for killing Rachel right in front of her after she had bargained for her best friend's life.

Hatred was too kind of a word, she just glared back at him with her jaw clenched tight. 

“What?” He seemed amused. “I thought you’d be thanking me. I hear your powers have developed. You’re welcome”. Lex just continued to glare at him. “I hear you met one of HYDRA’s old experiments…” his grin widened.

“Leave him out of this,” she growled.

“Ah...touchy are we. I would have taken him instead, but rumour has it he’s no longer the Winter Soldier and therefore useless to us,” Galen shrugged. “I guess we could just dispose of him…”

“I came like you wanted...now what the hell do you want from me?”

Galen raised his eyebrows. “I hear you came willingly when we threatened the Soldier. What a good little girlfriend you are…”

“I asked you what do you want?”

“Now, so touchy. Come on with me and we will have a little chat,” the man turned and began to walk down a hallway.

Naturally she was shoved forward by one of the other men. His grip was so tight on her wrist she was sure it would leave a bruise. She didn’t even care, the wheels in her brain were just whirling trying to figure out what they could possibly have to talk about.

When they reached the boardroom at the end of the hall, she was forced into a chair. She had one man standing over each shoulder clearly concerned she would flee.

Galen sat across from her, still wearing that amused smirk. He opened a drawer in the desk and fished a small metal band out of it. “First things first,” he slid it across the table to one of the other men.

The man unhooked it and then clasped it tightly around her wrist like a bracelet. “What is it?” she asked, staring down at the strange metal object with a flashing red light.

“It’s to stop people with gifts like yours from being able to use them. What a shame it would be to have you disappear on us...again,” he laughed darkly. “So Alexis...what have you been up to since we parted?”

“Lex,” she corrected, unable to help herself. “I doubt you brought me here for small talk…”

Galen smiled. “Alright if you insist on skipping the pleasantries,” he rolled his eyes like he couldn’t imagine why she was being so difficult. “I wanted to talk to you about your powers and how they developed…”

“You should know. You’re the one who did this to me”.

Galen laughed and shook his head. “You survived the transformation process yes...and we are beginning to understand why”.

“You injected me with alien blood. That’s how I survived…” she stared at him dumbfounded at how he didn’t realize this.

“We never injected you with alien blood. We injected you with a serum that would give the patient some kind of superhuman ability. It was based on the super soldier serum, but modified to become more unique,” he explained, but she still wasn’t following. “Did you not notice how many others died when they were injected?”

“Yes, but there’s extra DNA in my blood…”

Galen nodded. “Yes...but we didn’t put it there. We only put two and two together recently and knew we had to go to great lengths to get you back. You are one of our greatest achievements”.

Lex just stared at him. If he was expecting her to be flattered, she wasn’t going to be. “So what? You want to replicate my blood or something? Mass produce a serum to make more like me?”

The man laughed. “We had success making others like you...you met one of them...what was her name? Ashley?”

She felt the rage surge within her. “So what do you need me for?” she demanded once again.

“Have you heard of portal travel?”

Lex blinked a few times. “Yes...what of it?”

“We believe we have discovered a different planet we haven’t been able to access before…”

Lex just stared at him in disbelief. “And you need me to code the machine to open it or something?”

He laughed and the sound was jarring. “No no...we have people for that. We need you to make first contact…”

“You can’t be serious…” Lex shook her head. “What makes you think I’m the person to do that?”

“The portal we plan on opening has burned up other people during our test runs. We have a theory that due to your unique blood pattern, you would be able to survive going through…”

“It’s a theory. You want me to do this based on a theory?” she exclaimed.

“Well...we’re not looking for you to volunteer exactly...you don’t have much of a choice,” he gestured to her hands bound between them.

“Why do you even want to open this portal?”

“You ask a lot of questions. Many of them you do not require the answer to,” Galen replied simply.

Lex sighed heavily. “What do you want me to do if I make it there? I think I at least deserve to know what the point is of all of this…”

“Because Lex...the beings on the other side are the same beings as the blood that runs through your veins…”

She stared at him in disbelief. “How can you-”

“Lots of research,” he cut her off. “We want to collect more of their blood. If we can transfuse it into more people we can create an army of superhumans…” Galen stood up regarding her coldly as he motioned to the man with the grip on her arm. “Take her down to the cells. Get some rest, because we’re doing a trial run in the morning,” he waved his hand to have her taken away.

“You can’t do this,” she hissed as she was yanked to her feet.

“I can and I will,” Galen wasn’t phased. He just grinned at her as she was hauled from the room.

Lex’s heart was pounding in her chest as she was dragged down to the cell. This was a different building than the one she had been taken to previously and the cell was slightly larger, though not by much.

She felt like she was going to have a panic attack as she was thrown hard to the ground, landing rough on her shoulder. They were seriously going to send her to another planet to steal alien blood. 

As she lay there, wincing in pain, she prayed the machine would just burn her up instead. It would be easier than going through whatever she was going to have to go through, at least then they wouldn’t be successful.

She tried to sleep, pretending Bucky was with her to calm her down. Lex imagined the feeling of his arms wrapped tightly around her waist and just kept muttering ‘I love you. I love you’ until darkness overtook her.


	23. Chapter 23

~ Bucky ~

When he returned to the deck to find it empty, Bucky assumed Lex had gotten too cold while she was waiting and had gone inside. He headed back to the party stopping Natasha, then Tony, then Sam, then Steve to ask if they had seen her. With each ‘no’ he became more concerned.

He tried every room in the compound he could think of without success. His first thought was maybe she had run. She had confessed to him she didn’t do well with allowing herself to be happy. She always worried something would come along and ruin it. She was so afraid she was cursed. She had seemed a little off when they went outside, but the way she was looking at him when they danced led him to believe she would have at least left a note. She wouldn’t have gone out of her way to hurt him like that...would she?

Bucky saw Loki ghosting around the halls by himself and was suddenly overcome with emotion. “Where the hell is she?” he growled at him as he approached.

Loki’s slick black eyebrows raised, a soft smirk of amusement on his lips. “Where is whom?”

“You know very well who I’m talking about,” Bucky breathed. “You’ve been sniffing around Lex since you got here and now I can’t find her. What do you want with her? Where is she?”

Loki rolled his eyes. “I get that you don’t trust me, but I didn’t do anything. I haven’t seen her all night, so don’t blame me. Maybe she got bored and took off…” he shrugged.

Bucky grabbed him by the front of his shirt, backing him forcefully into the wall. This only seemed to amuse Loki further. “If I find out you had anything to do with this…”

“Whoa Buck!” Steve grabbed his friend's shoulder and pulled him back. “I know you’re a little stressed, but I’m sure she’s around. Maybe she’s just in the washroom?”

Steve was always the voice of reason, but Bucky wasn’t having it. “It’s been more than 20 minutes. She’d have turned up by now if nothing had happened to her. Steve...she was so worried she was cursed and I told her not to be. What if something happened to her?”

“Calm down. We will figure this out…” Natasha soothed, shooting a look at Steve that Bucky couldn’t see.

The party was suddenly ground to a halt. Everyone was combing the compound for any sign of her, but it was like she up and vanished.

“You don’t think she’s just stuck invisible do you?” Sam asked, glancing around as if he expected her to jump out at any time.

Bucky shook his head furiously. “She’s had no problem controlling it for weeks now...besides I’m sure she’d make her presence known. She can still speak and would realize we were looking for her”.

He raked his hands through his hair, terror written all over his features and the way he held himself. “I swear if they took her I will tear that place apart,” he said under his breath.

“We all will,” Tony told him, looking devastated himself.

Natasha walked in, examining something in her hand. “Uhh...guys…” she got their attention as best she could and held it up. The silver hair pin glinted in the light.

“Where did you find that?” Bucky’s voice was small, remembering it settled in Lex’s hair when they were dancing.

“It was in the field by the edge of the woods…” Natasha said softly, knowing very well what this meant.

“Shit,” Bucky’s heart had gone into overdrive. “They took her. We have to go after her,” he was already leaving the room.

“We need a plan,” Steve reasoned and tried to stop him.

“I have a plan,” Bucky said darkly. “Get her back at all costs”.

Steve sighed heavily. “Everyone who's coming...suit up!”

Bucky, Steve, Natasha, Sam, Tony, and Wanda were the ones deemed the most needed to go. Bruce had put his name forward as well, but was struggling with ‘the other guy’ and Steve let him down gently telling him this was more of a subtle mission. The Hulk certainly wasn’t known for being subtle. He would stay back with Vision and the others in case she turned up on her own.

They had found tire tracks beyond the forest and it hadn’t been that long so they couldn’t have gotten far. They split up into two cars to go back to the building they had gone to before to see if they could get answers.

Bucky has been angry the last time he was here. Seeing some of the equipment used on Lex and where she had been kept had brought back memories of his own time with HYDRA. He didn’t like thinking about anyone else suffering similar fates, at least he had been frozen in between missions and could turn his brain off. Lex had been shoved in a tiny cell like cage, left to grapple with the knowledge of the things they made her do.

The anger he felt last time was nothing compared to how he was feeling now, when he felt the stakes were so much higher. It was clear from the moment they arrived HYDRA wasn’t working out of this facility as much as they were before. It was strangely quiet, the guards that had been stationed outside last time weren’t there.

“Do you think they abandoned it?” Sam asked over the comms.

Bucky didn’t care if it was weird they weren’t there, he didn’t care if he was walking directly into a trap, he only cared about answers. He was already striding towards the door, gun at the ready, but Steve was hissing in his ear.

“Bucky! Bucky you can’t just go-” Steve got cut off by the sound of Bucky blasting open the door. “Or apparently you can. Lets go guys,” Steve motioned for the others to follow.

By the time the others cautiously got inside the building, Bucky had already grabbed a man and was holding him against the wall. “Where is Lex Martin? Where are they keeping her?”

The man struggled against him. “I don’t know. I don’t know who that is”.

Bucky chucked the man aside and continued to march down the hall. Natasha was right behind him, “Buck. If I can get on a computer I might be able to access their plans”.

He nodded, pushing through a nearby door. “There,” he gestured to a row of computers as he went after the few agents inside.

Natasha rushed to the computer, knowing the team had her back. They took out the few guards easily as she accessed their information. “Lex would be so much better at this,” she mumbled under her breath, though Natasha was an excellent hacker herself.

“How much longer Nat?” Sam who was in the hallway asked over the comms. “We have company coming in fast”.

“Just a sec,” Natasha breathed, flipping through the folders as quickly as she could. “Here. I have coordinates for what looks like a big operation on the outskirts of the city. This could be it…”

“Could be?” Bucky hissed.

“Listen, it’s the best lead we’ve got,” Natasha punched the coordinates into her arm band. “Lets go!”

They had to fight their way out of the building, but with people like Wanda on their side it wasn’t difficult. She waved her hands and sent them all flying back. They were back in the cars by no time.

“She’s going to be fine. She’s strong,” Wanda insisted, putting her hand on Bucky’s leg to stop him from fidgeting.

“I know she is,” he whispered, his eyes focused out the window as he silently willed Natasha to drive faster.

He kept trying to remind himself that she could take care of herself. She was already a decent fighter when they met, and she had been training so hard and had grown so much. Plus, she could just phase and get out of there now that she could control it. Why hadn’t she phased and escaped? Or maybe she had? The thought gave him a little glimmer of hope, but he knew he was charging in there either way.

Bucky was already getting out of the car before Natasha put it in park. “Bucky!” Steve tried to stop him yet again. “This is supposed to be a stealth mission. If you tip them off that we’re here already they might move her...or hurt her”.

He reluctantly held up with a sigh. “Lets just hurry. I don’t have a good feeling about this…”


	24. Chapter 24

When she walked into the large room and came face to face with the machine she shuddered. It was a large circle that they hoped the portal would be able to be contained within.

Galen was smiling. “You are going to stand here and we will be out there,” he gestured to a room above that looked down on the device. “We will power it on to see if we’ve managed to contain it. Before it would just suck up anything in the room and well...that was a mess…” he laughed darkly. “It will let off an aura and well...you’ll either die or you won’t”

Lex rolled her eyes, her hands were still bound in front of her and the bracelet to dull her powers was still strapped on her wrist. She wished she could phase and at least trick them into thinking she had disappeared.

“Best of luck,” Galen grinned at her and she wished she could knock it off his face. “I truly mean that...I hope you survive”.

With that Galen and his henchmen left the room, she heard the door lock heavily behind them and a moment later they were in the booth watching her. She took a deep steadying breath, her mind on Bucky and the others. She could be about to die and she would never see them again...but she didn’t want to think like that.

The machine clicked on with a ‘whirr’ and she held her breath. Light slowly began to emit from the circle and then it became a silvery translucent colour. The light suddenly burst out from the center, completely wrapping around Lex. She yelped and stumbled backwards completely expecting to have been burned up, but felt nothing.

The light stabilized and she looked around to discover that nothing had happened to her. She had managed to survive.

“Excellent. EXCELLENT!” Galen’s voice rang out over the PA system.

With another click the machine powered off and a few moments later he had returned. Lex was still checking her body for any marks, but she was completely fine.

“You passed the test. Rest up...we are going to prepare and then you’re going through,” he told her simply.

Lex could only shoot him a glare as she was once again dragged from the room and brought back to her cell. The guard roughly shoved her inside and locked the door shut behind her.

She sunk down against the wall and held her head in her hands. She wasn’t sure surviving was a good thing, as now she was going to be sent to another world. Nerves were wracking through her body, but she did her best to conceal them.

The hour she waited felt like it had both passed quickly, yet seemed like an eternity. She was grabbed by the guard and hauled right back to the machine. Galen was grinning even wider, and it caused her to feel even more unsettled.

“We believe you are going to make contact with an alien race called Kree. We require their blood for further experimentation which you will gather using this…” Galen instructed, showing her a large syringe looking piece of equipment he tucked into a bag. “We have also provided you with enough food and water to last you a week. That’s as long as you’ll have to gather what we need and come back to the portal point. Do you understand…”

Lex nodded, her head hung in anger. She couldn’t believe she was being forced to do this. Galen put a finger under her chin and forced her head up to look at him.

“Don’t act like we are monsters. We are trying to understand what we’ve created and desire to create more. This should excite you,” he breathed.

Lex opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by a commotion in the hallway. Galen exchanged a look with one of the guards who ran into the hall to investigate.

“Sir. Sir we have intruders,” he shouted back into the room.

The sound of gunfire echoing down the hallway made her heart jolt. Could they really have come for her?

“Get them out of here. We have to send her through,” Galen was barking instructions at the others.

Lex felt her heart jolt when Bucky came flying into the room, his eyes wild until they fell on her. “Lex! Thank god. Let’s go!” he shouted.

She tried to get to him, but another man held her back. Bucky was completely outnumbered by other agents, but then Wanda ran in and threw them back.

“They’re trying to open a portal and send me to the Kree,” Lex explained quickly. “Galen-” she suddenly realized she lost sight of the other man.

Her eyes locked on him, up in the booth, looking like he was about to power on the machine. Lex quickly looked at Bucky and Wanda and immediately realized the danger they were in.

“You both need to get out of here!” Lex shouted. “Please!”

She knew she was all but useless at his point, with her hands bound and the bracelet stopping her from using her powers.

“The machine! It will kill you!” she screamed.

Bucky was forcing his way past the guards trying to get closer to her. “I won’t leave without you!”

Lex could see the concern and terror in his eyes and tried to get to him. Wanda was holding some of the agents back, and Lex could hear the others grappling in the hallway. In the back of her mind she kept thinking of the machine and the Kree and what it would mean if they succeeded. 

“We need to destroy the machine,” she told Bucky as she reached him.

He looked behind her and then in her eyes. “Darling. We don’t have time. The others are struggling out there. We will have to deal with it later”.

She shook her head sadly. “Bucky...they’re going to experiment on more people like they did to us. Don’t you want to prevent that? They’re going to make contact with the Kree…”

Bucky’s eyes were large and sad. “I know. I know it’s terrible. C’mon...we will figure it out…” Bucky cut her hands loose and looked at the metal bracelet.

“It’s to stop me from phasing…”

He tried tugging it loose with no luck. “I can’t get it. We will have to get it off of you later…but here...take this in case we get separated,” he handed her a spare comm.

“We have to go,” Wanda shouted. She was clearly exhausted and struggling.

Bucky grabbed Lex by the hand and was pulling her towards the door. She heard the machine turn on and her heart dropped.

“We have to get you both out of here,” she told them in a panic, now shoving Bucky towards the door.

Wanda slipped through into the hallway and Lex pushed Bucky after her. “I’m sorry. I love you and I’m sorry,” she told him quickly.

“What?” Bucky was turning around, but she had already pulled herself from his grasp and shut the door between them. “Lex!”

Bucky was pounding on the door, the terror in his eyes breaking her heart. She had grabbed a broken metal pipe and wedged it in the door to stop him from opening it.

“Don’t do this. Please...Lex...we will figure something out together. Lex! Lex!” Bucky’s voice was becoming more and more panicked as she turned to walk back to the machine.

The light was beginning to emit from it and she knew she only had a few seconds. She had picked up a gun from a fallen agent and was firing it at the machine.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare!” Galen was screaming over the PA system.

She noticed the metal ring that contained the portal was starting to break apart. It was fairly flimsy to begin with, they were lucky it was containing the portal at all.

Bucky was still screaming as he tried to break down the door. “Lex. Please. PLEASE!”

It was breaking her heart into tiny little pieces, but she knew she only had this one chance to end this. She wouldn’t be in this position again and she wouldn’t be able to live with herself knowing she had turned her back on her job. 

She had no idea what would happen if she broke the machine. Maybe it would explode or something...or maybe she would be just fine.

Just as the portal opened completely, she managed to hit a soft point and the machine fell apart with a large bang. Light emitted sporadically and bounced all around the room. The screeching noise that filled the room from the grinding metal was enough to cause her to cover her ears.

Lex had just enough time to turn and shoot Bucky one last tearful look as she was suddenly pulled forward towards the blinding light. He was staring at her with his jaw open, tears apparent on his face as well.

She tried to fight against the pull, but there was no use. The portal sucked her, and anything that wasn’t nailed down, straight through and closed in on itself behind her.

Lex gasped as the air was knocked out of her. She was thankful to at least manage to land in a grassy forest clearing, narrowly avoiding smacking her head on some rocks, or being pierced by the shrapnel that came with her.

She sat up and tried to regain her breath as she looked around. “I’m so sorry Bucky,” she whispered out loud, patting the bag from Galen with a soft sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've been suuuuuuper busy...working two jobs and running and business will be fun they said. But here we are. Lex just had to try and be the hero!


End file.
